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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23484691">Apocalypsis Aquarius</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinthegreat/pseuds/rinthegreat'>rinthegreat</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Voltron: Legendary Defender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Amnesia, M/M, Slow Burn, keith and shiro aren't actually brothers fyi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 08:33:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>30,511</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23484691</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinthegreat/pseuds/rinthegreat</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith's been hunting for the legendary God, the Hurricane, for years now. But just when he finds it, it disappears before he can claim its power, leaving behind a stranger with blue eyes. Who is this guy? And does his appearance have anything to do with Hurricane vanishing again? Meanwhile, there are rumors of a demi-god on the other side of the world...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Keith/Lance (Voltron)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>159</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Departure</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Does it count as double amnesia if the author forgot she made this an amnesia fic?</p><p>hey guys it's been almost a literal year since i posted anything. i hope there are still klance fans out there ready for a nice long haul! This is ~70% complete as of right now, and it's looking like it might come in just under 100k. We shall see. Title comes from the song which inspired the fic in the first place.</p><p>betaed by the lovely <a href="https://twitter.com/ovvlish">ovvlish</a> (same beta, new name)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The moment the Hurricane appears, Keith knows this is the real one. He flies past people, most of them driving away from the incoming storm, and nearly crashes into a motorcyclist in his urgency. He sees a few others not running away; television reporters and curious spectators for the most part. No other Chasers in his sight.</p><p>Good. He doesn't want to deal with competition. Not today.</p><p>The wind picks up speed as he gets closer to the beach, buffeting his hair back away from his face. He can tell by the way the air feels that he’s right; this time it really is him. It’s the Hurricane he’s been waiting for.</p><p>The closer he gets to the ocean, the fewer people he sees, until he’s finally alone. The rain is stronger here, the wind so powerful that if he didn’t have his Wildfire, he would’ve been shoved back long ago. As it is, his Wildfire is barely strong enough to keep him dry, let alone propel him moving forward.</p><p>He’s already straining just to keep running, and he’s not even there. The battle, if Hurricane is looking for a battle, is going to be a tough one. But Keith’s been waiting for this Storm for a long time. Few people believe that the Hurricane still comes to land, and even fewer Storm Chasers are willing to bet their lives on it the way Keith is.</p><p>He puts on a new burst of speed, letting the fire fully envelope him now. Hurricane is stronger than Wildfire ever could be, and he can tell by the way the flames flow back from his face from the wind. Needing more than just that, he summons from the Volcano, his skin hardening and keeping him warm, pushing the Wildfire to the front end. And even with that, Hurricane is too strong. A burst of wind from the god smacks him, rain piercing into his eyes despite the protection his fire should've given him.</p><p>He sees why others aren't willing to bet their lives on this.</p><p>But this one really is the God. He can feel the thrum of magic in the wind and the rain, in the screaming of the storm around him. And that's why he keeps going, ignoring the warning bells ringing in his head, sounding eerily like Shiro's voice. Even if he wanted to heed the words, it's too late now. He's already inside.</p><p>He concentrates Wildfire at his feet and summons Tornado to the forefront. Together, the two magics lift him up, flying him towards the eye of the storm. He's searched for this God for years, studied it in detail, determined what it would take to harness its power, and now the time's finally here. </p><p>One last burst is all Keith has of Wildfire before the power fizzles out, needing time before its next use. Keith uses it to the last of the smoke, the heat fizzling away as it and Tornado make the final push. He's there. He’s finally there.</p><p>And then everything stops.</p><p>The pressure around him drops, cutting off his connection to Tornado. The wind which he had wrapped around his ankles disappears and Keith falls, ten feet.</p><p>Then fifty.</p><p>Then a hundred.</p><p>At the last moment, when he's about to hit the ground, he manages to find his connection to his magic again. He summons the Landslide on instinct, and it's just in time. The earth turns to mud beneath him, exploding around him as he impacts with a huff. It's enough to take all the air out of his lungs, but not enough to break any bones.</p><p>At least, he hopes not.</p><p>Keith manages to catch his breath and finally opens his eyes again. The sky above him is a clear blue, a few stray clouds scattered here and there as they disperse. But dispersed they are. What had been dark grey a few mere moments before is clearing up, the rain a mere drizzle where before it had been a downpour.</p><p>With a groan, Keith sits up. He looks around himself, confused. For a moment he thinks he's in the eye of the Storm, that he made it and that the God had cut him off from his other magic, forcing Keith to face him alone. But no, that can't be right. After all, he'd been able to save himself with Landslide.</p><p>Keith reaches out his hand, feeling the rain as it falls into his palm. It's not the same rain he'd flown in mere moments ago. It doesn't sing the way Hurricane had sung before. He pushes himself to his feet, stumbling as all the blood rushes away from his head, nearly blacking out at the sensation. But Keith ignores it, ignores the bruises he can feel on his back from landing and takes a few steps, hand still outstretched. No. This isn't the eye of the Storm.</p><p>Hurricane isn't here anymore.</p><p>And that's when he sees it: a body, face down on the ground, almost exactly where he'd been trying to get to. Concern takes over for a moment, and Keith races over, muscles protesting at the motion. In his mind, all he can think is that this is Shiro. Shiro who had warned him not to come. That he'd followed Keith in an attempt to stop him, and now he's lying here, defeated by the storm.</p><p>But no.</p><p>Keith jerks to a halt a few mere inches from the figure.</p><p>It isn’t Shiro.</p><p>Regardless, he kneels down and pushes the figure over. A man's face greets him, eyes closed peacefully, as if he were asleep. Two pale blue marks are present on his face, but before Keith can get a good look at them, they fade away, leaving only brown skin behind. A heartbeat bumps softly against Keith's hand where he's still supporting the man's neck. Keith lifts his fingers, holding them under the man's nose for a moment until he feels the air. Heartbeat and breath; the guy may very well be asleep.</p><p>Irritated that he'd nearly died and further annoyed by the thought that this could’ve been Shiro, Keith shakes him. When he gets no reaction, he shakes him harder. Slowly, as if waking from a deep slumber, the man opens his eyes. Brilliant blue peeks out, nearly glowing until the lids are fully open, and it fades to something more human.</p><p>He stares at Keith, and Keith stares back at him, speechless for a reason he can't put his finger on. They're both silent, gazing at each other for probably a moment too long until the guy opens his mouth and say, "Who are you?"</p><p>---</p><p>Keith hadn't been sure how to handle meeting the stranger. Together, the two of them had walked out of the area, keeping a safe distance from each other as they had navigated out of the eye of the storm. Keith had expected them to part ways once they'd exited the warzone – for lack of a better word – but the guy had followed him.</p><p>Silently. </p><p>He's doing his best to ignore him, walking a few feet in front of the guy, but for some reason, he's still following. Keith has half a mind to turn around and ask him what his problem is, but then he'd have to explain why he hadn't answered the guy's question earlier. He'd have to explain why he just stared at him, unable to even answer.</p><p>By the time they reach the where traffic is still backed up on the interstate, Keith's a full stride ahead of the stranger. The cars are completely stopped, and some even have their doors open. People are looking around, clearly confused, though none of them have ventured outside of their cars. In fact, none of them have appeared brave enough to even turn off their engines.</p><p>"Was that you?" a man asks as they walk by. Keith has half a mind to ignore him completely, but something in his head - again, sounding almost exactly like Shiro - stops him.</p><p>"No," he replies, wincing at that. "It just stopped."</p><p>The man frowns. "Then was it you?"</p><p>Keith opens his mouth, about to snap that no, he already said it wasn't him, when the stranger speaks up. "I don't think so." Keith turns his head sharply to look at the stranger and catches him rubbing his forehead. The guy pushes short brown bangs away from his face, and Keith catches sight of a large purple bump, red dripping out of it. Awkwardness vanishes in an instant.</p><p>"Shit are you okay?" he asks, speaking to the man for the first time.</p><p>At the sound of his voice, the guy, who had been staring somewhat confused at the guy in the car, looks over and meets Keith's eyes. For a moment, Keith's falling again, Tornado giving out under him. His stomach swoops, and all the air leaves his lungs in a whoosh as if he'd been punched.</p><p>"I...think I hit my head," the guy answers. Something connects in Keith's mind, warnings Shiro had given him as a child about wearing a helmet on his bike, and Keith approaches. The guy takes a step back, but Keith's too focused to let him get away. He grabs the guy's arm, holding him in place, and uses his other hand to brush the bangs away from the man's forehead.</p><p>The wound is small enough to not be seen when his hair's in the way, but it extends into the hairline. The bump is already bruising, and the blood is coming from a small cut. All in all, it's not the worst wound Keith's ever seen – or even the worst wound he, himself, has ever had – but the location alone is what concerns him. "I think you have a concussion," he mutters.</p><p>It's then, when he drops his eyes from the wound to meet the guy's gaze, that Keith realizes just how close he'd gotten. He's close enough that he can feel every breath the other man takes on his own face, and the same can probably be said about the stranger. He's transfixed again by those eerily familiar eyes, staring a moment too long before he notices the pink spreading across the man's face. In an instant, Keith steps back. "Sorry," he addresses the ground. "I think you should get to a doctor."</p><p>"Okay," the guy agrees.</p><p>He's probably just imagining how breathless the other guy is.</p><p>---</p><p>Shiro rushes to greet them the second they make it the rest of the way out of the storm's zone. Even before he's close enough for Keith to see details, he can see the worry lines etched on Shiro's face. Though, that might just be his face at this point. "Keith!" he shouts, not even making it all the way to them before he starts his lecture. "I told you this was too dangerous."</p><p>"I know," Keith says, stopping as Shiro reaches him. He tries not to twitch too much as Shiro pokes him, checking for wounds. He fails when Shiro reaches his left ribs, wincing.</p><p>Shiro backs up, frowning. "You're hurt."</p><p>"It's not a big deal."</p><p>"Of course it's a big deal. I'm supposed to look out for you."</p><p>Keith can already tell that this is going to devolve into a huge argument, so he diverts the conversation to something that will distract Shiro for at least a moment. "His is a bigger deal." He gestures at the stranger. "I think he has a concussion."</p><p>Shiro starts, as if he hadn't noticed the guy with Keith until just now. "Oh," he steps away from Keith. "Are you sure?"</p><p>"He has a bump on his forehead. It's bleeding."</p><p>As if on cue, the stranger pushes his bangs away, giving Shiro full view of his head. Shiro approaches him, but seems to have better manners than Keith, because he doesn't touch. "That looks painful," Shiro says, voice soft. Far softer than it had been while lecturing Keith a moment ago. "How did it happen?"</p><p>"I don't know."</p><p>Both Shiro and Keith nod. As he'd suspected, it's a concussion. "Okay," Shiro continues. "Do you have any friends or family nearby we can take you to?"</p><p>"I don't know." The guy's starting to look a little nervous now.</p><p>Now Keith's frowning. Just how hard did this guy hit his head?</p><p>"Can you at least tell me your name?" Shiro asks, voice still soft. Patient.</p><p>At this, the stranger's face changes from mildly concerned to all out panic. Keith already knows the answer before he even speaks.</p><p>"I don't know."</p><p>Well shit.</p><p>"Okay." This time, Shiro's talking to him. "We need to get him to a hospital. Now."</p><p>Keith doesn't argue. Instead he reaches out and grabs the guy's arm, irrationally concerned that he's gonna run away.</p><p>Shiro leads the two of them to his car. He exudes enough authority in his every motion that no one stops them from leaving. The cops directing traffic out of the area take one look at Shiro's face and give his car right of way over everyone else.</p><p>Keith notices this all in passing, but his mind's attention is still focused entirely on the guy sitting next to him. The two of them are in the backseat; Keith could've sat up front with Shiro, but he's still convinced that the stranger is going to bolt at any given moment. This shouldn't be his problem – what does he care if some random guy he's never met before runs away? He tells himself that it's because the man's injured. That he's concerned for his wellbeing and nothing else. But there's an itch in the back of his mind that he can't scratch. A familiarity he feels with this stranger that he hasn't felt before.</p><p>He has to know what it is.</p><p>Shiro manages to get them out of the traffic jam that the storm created and drives them straight to the nearest hospital. As could've been expected, the place is packed with injured people. Storm Gods, when they appear, aren't like normal weather patterns. They can't be predicted or prepared for. While a normal hurricane would've resulted in all these people preparing and leaving days ago, this one caught everyone off guard. Due to the nature of the storm, most people were able to escape the main warpath, but that clearly wasn't without casualties. </p><p>Keith just hopes that it was a lower number than the Landslide.</p><p>Shiro waves for them to sit down, so Keith, hand still firmly wrapped around the stranger's arm, leads them to a set of 3 empty seats. He forces the guy to take a seat on the end, then takes a seat in the middle, kicking one leg up on the chair next to him. A middle-aged woman, not sporting a visible injury, hovers for a moment, clearly wanting to sit down, but Keith glares at her until she walks away. And even then he doesn't take his hand off the man.</p><p>Eventually, Shiro returns, a clipboard in hand with far less paperwork on it than Keith remembers having to fill out the last time he'd been in the ER. "I pulled a few strings," he answers Keith's questioning look.</p><p>Keith moves his foot and lets Shiro sit down. "Do you remember anything yet?" he asks the stranger kindly.</p><p>The two of them look over at the man, who's expression reminds Keith strongly of a cornered animal. At least he doesn't look as panicked as he had before. "Not really," the guy responds, a little sheepishly.</p><p>It's at the sound of his voice that Keith becomes convinced that he's not going to bolt. Finally, he releases the grip he'd had on the man's arm. He flexes his fingers, just now becoming aware of how stiff they'd become during that time.</p><p>"So that means you remember something?" Shiro asks, voice still kind and calm. He should be a doctor.</p><p>"I remember a bright light," the stranger answers. "And falling."</p><p>Keith frowns. Falling he remembers all too well. But a bright light? He hadn't seen anything like that. "Are you a Storm Chaser?" he asks.</p><p>The stranger looks at him confused.</p><p>"Takashi Shirogane?" The sound of a nurse calling them brings Keith back to reality. Shiro stands up, gesturing for the two to follow. The three of them get led to the back, the nurse asking all the same questions Keith and Shiro had already asked.</p><p>
  <em>What's your name? How did you get here? Do you remember anything?</em>
</p><p>The stranger gives the same answer to all of them, even the last question, "I don't know."</p><p>Keith opens his mouth to ask about the flash of light, but a glare from Shiro stops him. Fine. If the stranger doesn't want to tell the whole truth to the doctors, then who is Keith to judge? It's not like he hadn't omitted a few things in his trips to the ER in the past. He doesn't have much of a leg to stand on with this.</p><p>It isn't until they reach the room that Keith realizes he's in trouble.</p><p>"We're going to need to run some tests on you," the nurse explains once they're all seated and the guy has his blood pressure taken. "The doctor will take a look at his vitals and might order a few more, but at least for now I know there are several scans we need to run."</p><p>"Like what?" Keith blurts out before Shiro can speak.</p><p>"MRI, CAT, and of course an x-ray. Your blood pressure is far lower than we'd expect from someone who just went through a trauma." The last part of it, she directs to the stranger.</p><p>"Fine," Keith speaks before either of the others can. "Just tell us where to go."</p><p>"No," the nurse says, this time turning to face him head on. "Just him. You two will need to go back to the waiting room."</p><p>Keith bristles, ready to protest, but Shiro rests a hand on his knee. "Of course. Let us know when he's done."</p><p>The nurse gives a curt nod to Shiro, ignoring Keith, then takes the stranger with her and the two disappear from the room.</p><p>"What was that for?" Keith asks, rounding on Shiro the moment they're alone.</p><p>"You heard the nurse. We need to go to the waiting room." Shiro stands.</p><p>"We should be going with him!"</p><p>Shiro turns to face Keith, an unreadable expression on his face. "Why? We're not his family, we're not his friends. He's a stranger you brought back from chasing Hurricane. I don't even know how you found him."</p><p>Keith opens his mouth to argue, then decides better and closes it. Shiro's right. They don't know the guy, and Keith still hasn’t said anything to Shiro about how he'd found him in the first place. All he'd said was that he thought the stranger had a concussion – which he does – and that they needed to help.</p><p>Keith isn't even sure himself why he feels so strongly about this.</p><p>"Right," he agrees. He stands up as well and follows Shiro without argument back to the waiting room.</p><p>The wait is hell.</p><p>Shiro somehow manages to sit patiently, crammed between a man with a clearly broken arm and a fussing woman who won't stop bothering her bleeding child. Keith had given up his seat, instead pacing up and down the tight row of chairs. Every time he passes the fussing woman, she looks up at him with a glare that could curdle milk. As if he cares.</p><p>See the thing is, he doesn't know the guy. Not even something as simple as his name. And yet.</p><p>And yet.</p><p>Keith can't get it out of his head, the way he looked when Keith had rolled him over. Peaceful, as if he hadn't taken a huge tumble from the sky, resulting in a concussion that caused him to forget even his name.</p><p>Maybe he hadn’t.</p><p>Who is he? Why was he there? Something about the whole thing bothers Keith. No other Storm Chasers had been there; no one had been there at all. Keith had been all alone in his journey towards the Hurricane. But at the same moment the storm stopped, he'd fallen, and apparently so had this guy. So just who is he and why was he there?</p><p>Shiro gives Keith a strange look every time he paces past.</p><p>No, that's not true. Shiro's been watching him strangely the entire time. Even if Keith can't see it, he's certain of it. From the moment Keith drew attention to the stranger's concussion, Shiro has likely been worried.</p><p>And the more he thinks about it, the more Keith is convinced that there's a good reason Shiro's been worried. Since when has Keith been this actively concerned about anyone aside from Shiro?</p><p>Sure, he cares about people he passes. Whenever he goes on one of his journeys to find the Storm Gods he makes sure that any innocents get out safe. Hell, that's half the point of going in the first place. But he's never before been this active in his approach. He's never been this concerned, this attentive.</p><p>And Keith doesn't even know why.</p><p>So he ignores the questioning glances Shiro sends his way. He keeps pacing back and forth and pretends like he doesn't notice, even though he does. Even though he knows Shiro knows he does.</p><p>After what feels like an eternity of waiting, their names are finally called. "Takashi Shirogane?" Before Shiro can even stand up, Keith's already bolted away from the line of chairs he's been pacing up and down in front of, and all but runs towards the counter. He can't help but notice that the stranger isn't there.</p><p>"Where is he?" Keith asks the nurse sitting there.</p><p>She stares back at him blankly. "I'm sorry sir, who...?"</p><p>"Pardon my brother," Shiro says smoothly, stepping forward and gently nudging Keith out of the way. Keith bristles but knows better than to interrupt. There are a rare few occasions when Shiro refers to him as “like-family” or his “brother” – when he's being particularly sappy or when Keith's in trouble. This situation is very obviously the latter. "I am Takashi Shirogane."</p><p>"Oh." The nurse gets almost immediately flustered the way most people do when they see Shiro for the first time. She blushes and drops her paperwork. "Forgive me," she apologizes.</p><p>"No need," Shiro assures her, smiling politely. </p><p>The nurse practically swoons. "The doctor requested that the two of you return back to room 5. Do you need help –?"</p><p>"No thank you," Shiro interrupts, still managing to sound polite despite speaking over her. "We've been here before."</p><p>It's not true, but they've been in enough hospitals to get the gist. The nurse doesn't stop them, instead buzzing them through to the patient rooms behind her. Despite how low of a number it is, room 5 isn't near the door. It's down the hall, and then down another hall from that. Keith stalks angrily behind Shiro, only letting the other man lead because the area's busy and Shiro can at least manage to walk confidently enough that no one questions what they're doing back here without an escort.</p><p>Room 5 is one of the rooms they give patients who don't need to stay the night. There are no connected bathrooms visible once they enter, and the bed is one that's made to roll around easily rather than for comfort. the man is sitting upright, wearing a hospital gown which is gathered at his legs. Now that Keith can even see them, he spots thin lines weaving their way around the man's calves. They look like scars in form, but their shape is too intentional to be anything but… Keith knows exactly what it is, even if he doesn't know this design exactly.</p><p>He has one just like it on his shoulder.</p><p>"Takeshi Shirogane." Shiro's voice forces Keith to break his stare away from the stranger's legs. He's introducing himself to the doctor, and it's at that moment that Keith realizes there's another person in the room. Before then, he hadn't noticed anyone but the stranger.</p><p>"Nice to meet you." The doctor breaks off the handshake with Shiro and looks expectantly at Keith who crosses his arms and leans against the wall. He's never been a fan of doctors.</p><p>"The good news," the doctor tells Shiro after an awkward pause, "is that the amnesia seems to be temporary. We've run scans and, while there may still be long term effects, there's nothing immediately alarming or life threatening."</p><p>"What do you mean long term effects?" Keith snaps.</p><p>The doctor turns to face him, clearly irritated with his disrespect. "All concussions have long term effects," he replies impatiently. "This one is no different."</p><p>"And life threatening?" Shiro asks, much calmer than Keith had been.</p><p>The doctor turns back to him, less annoyed than he had been with Keith. "Again, concussions are no laughing matter. However, this one seems to be nothing strange or alarming, as I said. You'll need to keep an eye on him, especially as his memory comes back, but so long as you don't notice any nose bleeds or narcolepsy, then there's nothing to panic over. He seems to have taken quite a fall. With the suddenness of the storm, it's no wonder. He got out easier than others."</p><p>Keith turns to face the stranger, who's staring at his hands rather than look at any of them. If the same thing had happened to Keith, he's not sure he could've stayed quiet. Or maybe he could have. Of all the injuries he's sustained in his years of being a fully-fledged Storm Chaser, a concussion has never been one of them.</p><p>A cold hand suddenly grips Keith's shoulder, causing him to jump. He startles, looking over and Shiro and the empty room around them. "Doctor Erstein left," Shiro tells him softly. Keith hates the way he's talking now; it's like he thinks Keith's about to snap at any moment.</p><p>Though, maybe that fear isn't the most unfounded.</p><p>"He said you were starting to remember things?" Shiro addresses the stranger, hand still on Keith's shoulder. "Can you tell us any of that?"</p><p>"I remembered my name," the stranger says, still staring at his hands.</p><p>"That's great," Shiro says encouragingly. Keith would've demanded to know what it was right then, but Shiro's grasp on him seems to be holding him to reality, so he stays silent.</p><p>"Lance," the stranger says, finally looking up. Keith’s greeted with the same brilliant blue he’d seen when the stranger – Lance – had first opened his eyes. "My name's Lance."</p><p>---</p><p>With nothing more than a concussion, the doctor had deemed Lance fit for discharge. Really, Keith thinks it’s a bit premature. The guy barely remembers his name. But the doctor had seemed to think that was good enough and had all but demanded that they leave after they'd had a few moments alone with Lance.</p><p>That's usually the way it is when the Storm Gods hit; only those with life threatening injuries get to stay.</p><p>Keith would ordinarily complain about staying the night, but this time he thinks Lance could've done with one. After all, he <em>only</em> remembers his name. Nothing else. Age, last name, friends, birthplace... none of that seem to be something important enough for Lance to know. It's driving Keith absolutely nuts. He can't say why, but he wants to know more about Lance. He needs to know more about Lance. This guy appeared out of nowhere the second the Hurricane disappeared. The very Hurricane Keith's been searching for, for years. Keith had been less than a second from reaching it and all of his dreams had come crashing down.</p><p>Quite literally.</p><p>Somehow, Lance is the answer to all that. He knows it.</p><p>With no memories other than his name, Keith and Shiro have no one to contact and no way to find the home that Lance really belongs to. Shiro doesn't ask Keith anything. The three of them get in the car, Keith in the front this time, no longer concerned that Lance is going to escape, and Shiro drives them home.</p><p>Well, to Shiro's home.</p><p>Keith's home is sometimes the guest bedroom in Shiro's apartment, and sometimes he lives in his own place in the desert. But today they go back to Shiro's place, and Lance joins them without a complaint. Whether he's normally the non-talkative type, Keith doesn't know, because Lance hasn't said a damn word since introducing himself in the hospital. He gets the feeling this is unusual for the guy, but it's the same as the itch under his skin telling him that Lance is familiar; he doesn't know where the thoughts are coming from.</p><p>"We should keep an eye on you," Shiro tells Lance. "Make sure you wake up every hour or so since you have a head injury."</p><p>Lance nods. "That makes sense."</p><p>"I'll do it," Keith offers.</p><p>Shiro frowns at him. "You need sleep."</p><p>Keith shrugs. "I'm not tired."</p><p>"You chased a hurricane today."</p><p>"No," Keith argues. "I chased <em>The</em> Hurricane today. And I'm fine, as you can see."</p><p>Shiro raises his eyebrow, looking pointedly at Keith's side where he'd winced when Shiro had poked him earlier.</p><p>"I'm fine," Lance says. "I can set an alarm for myself or something."</p><p>"No," Keith argues immediately, voice almost coming out as a growl. "You shouldn't be alone."</p><p>This time it's not just Shiro who gives him a strange look; Lance does too. There's more expression on his face than Keith's seen in the few short hours they've known each other. Panic and confusion were all he'd seen before but this look, this is almost calculating. Searching.</p><p>It's better than the blank stare Lance had been giving his hands back in the hospital.</p><p>"Okay," Shiro agrees. Keith can tell by his tone of voice that he's only saying this to appease him. "Keith, you can keep an eye on him in a bit. Right now, I want you to shower and change."</p><p>Keith's about to argue, but Shiro looks pointedly at his side again. What Shiro's really saying is 'I know you're injured, go check it out' and he won't take no for an answer. So with one last glance at the two of them, Keith leaves.</p><p>The good thing about living part-time with Shiro is that he has clothes stashed in the guest closet. And, of course, Shiro's nice enough to do the washing for him. Keith's positive that he's never done laundry a single time in Shiro's apartment.</p><p>The other good thing is that Shiro has hot water that Keith doesn't have to heat himself. He's never been one to look for a place that has all the 'necessities' of modern living. He prefers something cheap so that when he leaves holes in the walls from hanging up too many articles and maps, he doesn't have to deal with losing a deposit. The downside is that he almost always has to use Wildfire or Volcano in order to get hot water in his shower, and today they're both tapped out simply from <em>trying</em> to get him closer to Hurricane.</p><p>Not that it did any good.</p><p>Keith bangs his hand on the side of the shower, splashing water droplets all over. Three years of searching, and all it led to was him falling from the sky. All he has to show for it is a bruise spreading across his side from his – hopefully not broken – rib.</p><p>Three years.</p><p>He can't hear the voices in the living room, but he's sure Shiro's out there, making sure Lance feels at home. Shiro has that effect on people. Everyone who meets him falls immediately and hopelessly in love with him. Keith isn't sure if it's a gift or a curse.</p><p>Right now he thinks it might be the latter.</p><p>He finishes his shower, doing his best to ignore the other scratches and bruises scattering his body. He has marks from where what might've been hail cut him. Wildfire had been focused mostly on protecting his face, which means his hands and arms didn't get away so easily. He pulls on a fresh pair of black fingerless gloves, hoping that they hide the worst of it. He doesn't want Shiro to see and send him to bed before he has a chance to properly talk to the only clue he has as to why Hurricane vanished like that.</p><p>Which is the only reason he's so concerned about Lance. He needs to question him.</p><p>That’s all it is.</p><p>He prepares himself mentally for the barrage of questions he'll get from Shiro the moment he leaves the bathroom, but when he finally walks out, Shiro’s not there. A single light is on in the living room, and when he walks over, he sees Lance sitting alone on the couch, staring at what Keith recognizes as his own phone. It's still locked, but the screen is on, showing the background Keith never changed. It's a selfie of him and Shiro, and it's one of the rare pictures Keith has of himself where he's smiling.</p><p>Really, it's a rare picture that Keith has of himself at all.</p><p>Shiro had taken it before he'd left four years ago, and Keith never had the heart to change it. Even when he got a new phone, he kept it as his background.</p><p>"Hey," he says when Lance doesn't look up. Shiro's always lectured him about being too quiet and sneaking up on him. At first it had been funny, but well, one trip to the emergency room had changed that. Keith doesn't sneak up on people anymore.</p><p>And judging by the way Lance jumps, it's a good thing Keith said something. Immediately, Lance scrambles with the phone, trying to hide it from view. "I didn't... uh... see you there."</p><p>"I'm told I'm pretty quiet," Keith agrees, walking around the front of the couch and taking a seat a good foot away from Lance. "Didn't mean to sneak up on you."</p><p>Clearly red handed, Lance flushes and holds out his phone. "I think this is yours. You dropped it in the hospital."</p><p>"It's fine," Keith says with a shrug. "Do you wanna watch videos or something on it?"</p><p>Lance shakes his head, stopping almost immediately with a hiss. "Okay that hurt."</p><p>"Be careful," Keith lectures harshly. "You have a head injury."</p><p>"Gee, thanks for that, Captain Obvious." The way Lance snaps back at him is so familiar that they both pause for a moment. "Sorry," Lance apologizes after an awkward pause. "And thank you."</p><p>"For what?"</p><p>"Saving me. I think. I really don't have much of a memory of it. I just remember you telling me to follow you... It's all hazy."</p><p>Keith frowns. "I never told you to follow me."</p><p>"Really?" Lance rubs his head, the strands of hair in front shifting to reveal a white patch underneath. "I could swear I heard someone say that I needed to follow you. Maybe it was someone else."</p><p>Keith shakes his head. “No one else was there. I think your memory's wrong."</p><p>"Oh."</p><p>They fall into another awkward silence, and Keith's painfully aware of the shadows filling the room. It's well after sunset at this point – just how long had they been in the hospital?</p><p>"Anyway," Lance says. "Thanks. If it wasn't for you, I'd probably still be wandering around, lost and confused."</p><p>"I'm sure someone would've picked you up."</p><p>Lance snorts. "Yeah, okay."</p><p>"What?" Keith asks, already defensive.</p><p>"I think you're severely overestimating how nice people are."</p><p>"They may not be nice to someone like me, but they'd be nice to –" Keith cuts himself off. He means to say 'someone like you' but he can't get the words out.</p><p>"Just because I'm injured doesn't mean people would be nice. You saw the cars – they weren't even willing to get out and risk themselves to ask us if the storm was over."</p><p>That isn't what Keith meant, but admitting that would make things even worse, he's sure. Even thinking it is enough to make the tips of his ears pink. "Yeah," he agrees, at a loss for a counterargument.</p><p>"So thank you," Lance repeats. "Really." He stretches his arms over his head almost exaggeratedly. "I'm sure I'll have all my memories back by tomorrow no problem, then I'll be out of your hair."</p><p>The thought bothers Keith, and it's not just because the sliver of skin visible under Lance's shirt is enough to make his mouth dry. It's something else he can't explain. He's not even sure he wants to try. So instead he agrees. "Hopefully."</p><p>Lance lowers his arms slowly, and when Keith looks over, he sees hurt clearly written all over the other man's face. It isn't until a beat passes that he realizes what he just said. "I didn't mean –!"</p><p>"It's fine," Lance interrupts. Keith doesn't even know him, but he can tell by the tone of voice that it's anything but fine. "Do you think there's an extra set of towels I can use? I feel gross after the hospital."</p><p>"Oh. Yeah. Shiro keeps his towels in the closet next to the guest bathroom." Lance nods and stands up, but something about it bothers Keith, and he stands up too. "Do you want clean clothes to sleep in? I have a few pairs here."</p><p>Lance gives him a look Keith can't read this time before nodding. "Actually, yeah can I? I think there's blood on mine."</p><p>Sure enough, there are a few dried stains around the collar of the shirt Lance is wearing. Worse though is that the more he looks, the less certain Keith is of the color. He'd thought it was a brown-grey, but based on the patches he thinks the shirt might be damaged from the storm. "Of course," Keith answers. "I offered, didn't I?"</p><p>Lance nods, softer this time, as if he's even more aware of his head than he had been previously. When he stands, it's shaky. Keith makes an aborted motion to help before stopping himself. If he were in the same situation, he wouldn't want a stranger coddling him.</p><p>Something tells him Lance feels exactly the same way.</p><p>He stays on the couch, waiting in the near dark while he hears the shower start up. He hopes the guy doesn't pass out while inside. Keith resolves to give the shower a good ten minutes before he goes to check on him. Before he can start counting though, Shiro walks back into the living room, dressed in his pajamas and carrying a pile of sheets. "I thought I heard the shower start up again," he says when he sees only Keith sitting there.</p><p>"There was blood on his clothes," Keith answers.</p><p>"And elsewhere, no doubt," Shiro agrees. He places the folded pile of bedding on the corner of the couch where Lance had been sitting. "You could give him the guest room for the night you know," Shiro says. "Especially if you're planning on staying up with him anyway."</p><p>It's not his room; technically it's Shiro's. But something about letting Lance stay in the room that is his, sleep in the bed Keith sleeps in, is a little too personal. So instead Keith shakes his head. "If we have to wake him up every now and then he shouldn't get too comfortable anyway."</p><p>Shiro frowns but doesn't argue. "You know," he says quietly, as if he's afraid one wrong word will have Keith bolting in the other direction. He's not entirely wrong. "After he gets his memory back, you and I will need to talk about what happened."</p><p>"Yeah," Keith agrees, not meeting Shiro's eyes. "Okay."</p><p>It isn't long after Shiro leaves that the sound of water cuts off. Keith hadn't been paying attention to the time, but the fact that the shower isn't still going is good enough for him. At least he doesn't have to save Lance from having slipped and fallen now. What he should do is get up and make the couch like a bed; give Lance a nice place to sleep. Instead, Keith continues to sit exactly where he'd been when Lance left, staring at the space where Shiro had placed the sheets. Shiro's right; they do need to talk. But even before that, Keith needs to figure out what his own deal is.</p><p>Because he doesn't know Lance, but he feels like he should.</p><p>His first mistake, when he hears the door open, is to look up. Really, though, Keith realizes as his mouth goes impossibly dry, that had been his second mistake. The first one was to lend Lance his clothes. Lance is the same height as Keith, maybe a little taller, but he's slimmer than Keith. Keith's shirt hangs looser over his chest than Keith's own, and it really shouldn’t look good. But somehow…</p><p>Keith looks away.</p><p>"Thanks for the clothes, man," Lance says. There's a dip, alerting Keith that Lance has rejoined him on the couch. "Mine were a mess."</p><p>"Shiro can wash them," Keith offers, as if he has any right to do that. After all, this is Shiro's place, not his. He really shouldn't be offering anything except his own clothes. And here he is, acting as if these are his things to give.</p><p>"He doesn't have to," Lance protests. "It's nice enough that he's letting me stay with you guys..." He trails off as if there's more he can't say. Or at least doesn't want to.</p><p>"It's fine," Keith assures him, once again speaking for Shiro in his absence. "He usually washes my stuff anyway."</p><p>If Lance thinks that's weird, he doesn't say anything about it. In fact, he doesn't say anything at all. Keith finally looks up at the stranger again, only to find Lance staring at him with an unreadable expression. Immediately, Keith gets defensive. "What?"</p><p>"Nothing," Lance replies too quickly. "Just..."</p><p>"Just what?"</p><p>"You seem familiar."</p><p>And there it is.</p><p>Because Lance seems familiar too, even though he shouldn't. There's no reason Lance should be any more familiar to him than anyone else he could've seen that day. But he does. That itch is still present under Keith's skin, telling him that yes, he has seen Lance before. There's not a good way to describe it other than what Lance just said.</p><p>"Sorry," Keith replies. "I don't recognize you." It's not a lie. He doesn't recognize Lance, but that doesn't mean he isn't familiar nonetheless.</p><p>For some reason, Lance winces in response. "Yeah," Lance says. "I didn't think you did." He shrugs, immediately changing from serious to light. "Besides, it's probably just the concussion again, right?"</p><p>Keith frowns. "Sure," he acquiesces. But he doesn't think that's how concussions work. In fact, he doesn't know much about how they work in the first place to know if any of this is normal.</p><p>Does Lance even really have memory loss?</p><p>He immediately shakes the thought from his mind, and instead focuses on what he knows. His instinct is that he needs to make sure Lance is okay. And Keith's instinct has never led him astray before. "You should get some rest," he says. "I'll set an alarm to wake you up."</p><p>"You really don't have to stay with me," Lance protests. "I can set my own alarm."</p><p>"With what phone?" Keith retorts. "Do you have one with you?"</p><p>"No, but –"</p><p>"No buts. If the alarm doesn't wake you up then it's still my problem, okay?"</p><p>"...Okay."</p><p>Lance is the one who puts together the couch, making it up as if it were a guest bed. Keith sits on the floor, leaning his back against the cushions while he plays with his phone settings, trying to find the sound that will wake him up easiest without irritating Shiro down the hallway. He hears a rustling behind him and looks over to see Lance tucking himself in, back to Keith as he faces into the cushions. "Thank you," Lance says again.</p><p>This time, Keith knows better than to protest. "Yeah," he replies. "No problem."</p><p>---</p><p>The night passes relatively smoothly. Keith doesn't get much sleep at all, nodding off with barely enough time to get some rest before he's woken up by the loud beeping of his alarm. Every time, he moves to shake Lance, but he usually says "I'm awake" before Keith can move more than a few inches off the floor. It eases his concern in a way, but by the time the light of dawn starts to shin through the cracks in the curtains, Keith's butt has fallen asleep and he's pretty sure his legs are stuck in a crossed position.</p><p>It's not the most pleasant night of his life. </p><p>When Shiro comes in the room to wake him up, Keith's in a strange half-asleep state. He's staring at the tv in front of the window, lit just enough to show a reflection of him. He sees Lance's face, the blue marks glowing under his eyes like they had when Keith had rolled him over back on the beach. They're entrancing, drawing him in the way a moth is drawn to flames.</p><p>"Keith." Shiro rests a hand on his shoulder as he speaks. "Wake up."</p><p>Keith startles, only half aware that at some point in his staring, he'd closed his eyes. The image is still burned behind his eyelids, but when he turns, Lance is still facing the back of the couch, with no blue glow around him. He rubs his eyes as he stands, wobbling into Shiro's arm.</p><p>"You need to get some real sleep," Shiro tells him in his mothering tone.</p><p>This time, Keith doesn't argue. He's already nodding off again, and his entire body aches. Only some of which are from sitting against the couch the entire night.</p><p>"Yeah," he mumbles. Or at least, he tries. He's not sure if anything comes out other than an indistinguishable grunt. Keith lets Shiro guide him into his guest bedroom, and when he reaches the bed he faceplants against it, passing out before his head hits the pillow.</p><p>---</p><p>When Keith wakes up again, the room is filled with afternoon light leaking through the curtain. He groans as he rolls over, entire body aching in protest. The fall had taken a lot out of him, more than he would've expected. He reaches inside himself, feeling for his powers. Wildfire, his favorite, is there immediately, ready to be called to the forefront. Keith doesn't pull on it, instead content that whatever had caused him to momentarily lose contact with his magic was just that. Temporary.</p><p>When he sits up, his entire side burns. Keith lifts his shirt and glances down at it, seeing the purple bruise covering almost half his stomach. It wasn't that big yesterday. With a wince, he lowers his shirt. He needs to keep that a secret from Shiro, or the man will never let him hear the end of it.</p><p>Keith doesn't bother changing his clothes when he gets up, as bending over is hard enough already. Somehow, he doesn't think he'll get all that far before Shiro figures out what's going on with him.</p><p>The most startling thing is the sounds he hears when he leaves his room. Both him and Shiro are quiet people, so hearing the sound of talking and boisterous laughter is, well, odd to say the least. It sounds like Shiro decided to throw a party without him.</p><p>So when he enters the living room and sees just the two of them, it takes him aback.</p><p>Shiro's laughing uninhibitedly. It's a laugh Keith can rarely bring out of him on his own, and yet here he is, laughing at something Lance had said.</p><p>"Shiro," he greets, voice coming out far harsher than it should.</p><p>Shiro stops laughing, noticing Keith for the first time, but the smile doesn't fade. "Keith, welcome back to the world of the living."</p><p>"What time is it?" Keith asks, wandering into the kitchen to get something to drink. Magic takes a lot out of him; he's dehydrated.</p><p>"A little after one." The answer comes from Lance. When Keith finally turns around, water in hand, he sees Lance sitting on the couch, twisted to face him. His face is brighter than it had been the day before, eyes more alive than in the hospital. "I was going to wake you up for breakfast, but Shiro said you sleep too deep after a battle with one of the Gods."</p><p>Keith's stomach twitches. It's partly from hunger, but mostly that he hasn't told Shiro anything about what happened. Shiro probably thinks he managed to get it; that he has the power of the Hurricane now. Just to check, Keith reaches inside himself again, feeling out the stores he has. Nothing new presses at the edge of his senses. There are still no water-based magics at his disposal. But that's a confession he can give at another time. Right now, they have a stranger in their house – Shiro's house.</p><p>And Keith still needs to know why.</p><p>"Do you remember anything?" Keith asks, taking a sip of his water. He hopes his voice came out indifferent, as if he doesn't really care too much about the answer. He gets the feeling though that it's the opposite. He feels too curious, too wound up to hide his intentions.</p><p>Lance scratches his head just below the still-present bandage. "A little. Flashes of things. Rain and wind. Falling. Things like that. Shiro said that it was probably from the storm. I guess there was a hurricane yesterday?"</p><p>"Not just any hurricane," Keith informs him. "The Hurricane."</p><p>Lance looks confused. "Uh. Okay?"</p><p>"Do you remember anything about the Storm Gods?" Shiro asks as Keith drains the rest of his water.</p><p>Lance shrugs. "Sure a little. I mean they sound familiar." He lets out a laugh that sounds somehow less genuine than the one he'd drawn from Shiro only moments earlier. "Maybe my memory isn't coming back."</p><p>"It's fine," Shiro assures him. Keith ignores the gentle tone, instead slamming his glass into the button on the freezer to fill it with more water. So what that Shiro's being caring towards this stranger? Isn't that the entire point of them bringing him back here? "The doctor said it might take time. You had quite a nasty bump."</p><p>"Do you remember what you were doing in the storm?" Keith asks, pushing maybe a little too hard. "Were you Chasing it?"</p><p>Lance turns to face him again, something Keith won't call a victory even in his own head. "I said I don't remember. I remember the storm itself and nothing before it or after until I saw your face." Keith doesn't flush. He doesn't. The room's just a little warmer than he'd noticed earlier.</p><p>"Right," he says coherently. "So you don't know why you were there."</p><p>"No..." Lance draws out the word, as if Keith's the stupid one for asking it. But really isn't Lance the stupid one for even <em>being</em> in the storm in the first place? Even Storm Chasers don't go running into the Hurricane unless they're idiots or have a death wish.</p><p>At least, that's what Shiro had shouted after him as Keith had run off.</p><p>"Did you hit your head too?" Maybe it's supposed to be a joke, but the way Keith hears it, it's an attack. His hackles raise and he almost immediately rises to the challenge.</p><p>"No, I didn't. I, at least, was prepared to be there."</p><p>"Keith." The warning comes from Shiro, who sounds more than a little disappointed in him. "We don't know why Lance was there. For all we know he got caught in the wreckage and never made it out."</p><p>"Or," Keith argues, "he's another Storm Chaser who wasn't ready to be there and got his ass kicked."</p><p>Shiro purses his lips, giving Keith a look that he knows to be 'don't push it'. Keith's never been good at not pushing though. So he rounds back on Lance, who is staring at him with wide eyes. "So is that it? Are you a Storm Chaser?"</p><p>"I don't -"</p><p>"Don't say you don't know!" Keith explodes. He doesn't even know why he's so mad. He can't think of a single good reason for it. But this guy. <em>This guy</em>. He doesn't know who he is past his name, where he's from, or why he was there. All he knows, apparently, is how to annoy the ever-loving shit out of Keith.</p><p>And apparently, he knows how to fight too, because the guy immediately stands up, glaring at Keith over the back of the couch. "Well that's too bad, <em>hot shot</em>," he spits the nickname like an insult. "Because I don't know. Got a problem with that?"</p><p>"Yes!" Keith shouts back, letting the anger come forward full tilt. As always, whenever his emotions get too high, his magic is there. Wildfire is itching at his fingers, barely contained by his skin. "I do!"</p><p>"That's rich coming from the guy who wouldn't even <em>let go of my arm</em> -" Lance starts, but once again Keith cuts him off.</p><p>"That was to keep you from running off and getting a second concussion, which knowing you -"</p><p>"You don't know me!"</p><p>"That's the problem!"</p><p>"Enough!"</p><p>Shiro's voice booms over both of them, silencing the room. He has shadows gathering around him, and one look from Keith tells him that Shiro's more than angry; he's pissed. It's a look Keith hasn't seen on him in a long time. Not since...</p><p>Since.</p><p>"Keith," Shiro directs at him. "You were the one who insisted that we take care of him while he recovers. So the least you can do is be nice. And Lance," Shiro rounds on the other man. "Keith saved your life from what I gather. The least <em>you </em>can do is not rile him up like that."</p><p>Lance huffs, "Sorry."</p><p>Keith, on the other hand, crosses his arms over his chest and looks away.</p><p>"Keith," Shiro warns.</p><p>"Sorry," Keith grits.</p><p>Shiro nods, like that's all he needed to solve his problems. "That's settled then."</p><p>It's not settled. Far from settled. Wildfire is still at the tips of Keith's consciousness, and Volcano is itching to erupt. He doesn't know why, doesn't know how, but this guy has gotten so far under his skin that he's ready to tear him to shreds. People don't normally get this reaction from him. He can't remember the last time anyone did.</p><p>---</p><p>It's Shiro's idea to go back to the disaster area. He usually goes in after Storms like this, but this time he wants Keith and Lance to join him. "Partly to keep you from killing each other, and partly to see if we can find any clues about where Lance is from," he says before ushering them both out the door.</p><p>Keith's acutely aware that Lance is still wearing his clothes.</p><p>The area is still a disaster from the storm the day prior. People are all around, cleaning up. A mix of locals and law enforcement are working to pull a tree out of the way to clear out...something.</p><p>Keith doesn't want to know.</p><p>Storms are always like this. That's the bad of it. Keith loves the rush, he lives for the chase. But when he sees the aftermath of a sudden Storm, ripping people's lives to shreds. Well. He doesn't like it. It's why he doesn't come with Shiro to clean up. He does what he can to stop the Storms from causing more destruction than necessary, but after…</p><p>After is a different story.</p><p>After the storm is when people are scattered around, screaming as they find the remains of their family pet. After is when the reality of what happens when a Storm hits is evident. Homes destroyed, people missing or dead, loved ones separated.</p><p>He hates this part.</p><p>Shiro immediately moves to help the people trying to lift the tree, but he doesn't ask Keith to follow, so he doesn't. Strangely, Lance stays with him too. "Aren't you curious?" Keith asks.</p><p>"No," Lance says immediately. But the heat and challenge is gone from his voice. Instead it sounds the way Keith feels: resolute and afraid of what he'd see. "I don't want to know what's down there."</p><p>Keith nods, even though Lance isn't looking at him. "Then let's keep moving."</p><p>"What about Shiro?"</p><p>"He'll find us," Keith assures him. "He'll be happier there helping people." <em>And not listening to us argue</em> goes unsaid. Whether Lance knows that's what he meant or not, he doesn't know. Either way, Lance follows him.</p><p>There aren't many cars on the streets. People are mostly walking around, trying to see what they can in the way they only can when they're not moving at the speed of a car. Keith understands, but at the same time he tries not to stare too hard when he sees a mound next to the road.</p><p>"So," Lance says, breaking the silence. "Are we looking for something in particular?"</p><p>Keith shrugs. "Not really. Something that might spark your memory or a person who recognizes you."</p><p>"What?"</p><p>Normally Keith would respond with something like <em>are you deaf?</em> but he knows that the question Lance is asking isn't because he doesn't understand. It's because he doesn't understand for an entirely different reason. "Why did you think Shiro was dragging us out here?"</p><p>"I don't know. I thought it was to help."</p><p>Keith inclines his head in acquiescence. "That too. But he would help regardless. He wants us here to see if we can figure out how to help you."</p><p>"I figured Shiro would help. I didn't..."</p><p>He didn't think Keith would help. The sentence falls unfinished between them, and Keith's suddenly left completely awkward and vulnerable. Because he hasn't given Lance a reason to think that he wants anything to do with him. Sure, he saved Lance in the beginning. But Lance barely remembers that. All he remembers is Keith not being nice to him. Of course, it looks like Keith wants nothing to do with him from his perspective.</p><p>He has no one to blame but himself.</p><p>"Well, we're here so we may as well look," Keith says awkwardly. He proves his words by making a show of looking around. But really, he has no idea what he's looking for. Unless Lance has a twin, he's not going to know that he's found something without help. And unless Lance suddenly gets his memories back...</p><p>Keith looks over to see Lance gazing around with no recognition on his face.</p><p>Yeah, so that idea's out the window.</p><p>Instead, the two of them wander through the wrecked streets as though they're blind. Keith has no real idea where he's going. He doesn't know this area well, and he hadn't exactly been paying loads of attention when he'd been chasing Hurricane the day before. The only reason he isn't lost is that there isn't a way <em>to</em> be lost. So long as they're still surrounded by wreckage, they're where they're supposed to be. He's leading them down another road, taking a corner at random when a voice calls out to them. Or rather, to Lance.</p><p>"Lance!"</p><p>The voice is unfamiliar enough that Keith is immediately wary. He shouldn't be; this is the entire point. And yet, he still finds himself planting himself firmly in front of Lance while a large man charges the two of them.</p><p>There's a beat and then Lance pushes past him. "Hunk!"</p><p>What?</p><p>The two men collide in what can only be described as a tackle. The larger man – Hunk, Lance had shouted – lifts Lance into the air in a massive bear hug. "Oh man, I thought I lost you buddy."</p><p>"H-hey," Lance stutters. "Can you put me down?"</p><p>Hunk obliges, but much like Keith had done the day before, he doesn't release Lance completely. "What happened? We looked for you everywhere after the Storm ended. I thought you were..." He trails off, but he doesn't need to finish his thought for Keith to know exactly what he means.</p><p>"I uh," Lance struggles. It's the same struggle Keith saw the night before. "I got some help." He gestures towards Keith, and for the first time Hunk seems to notice him. The guy's eyes open wide, his jaw dropping for a moment before he asks.</p><p>"What are you doing with Keith?"</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Sunset Waltz</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Keith learns more about Lance. Things happen.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The fact that he’s recognized is what startles Keith initially. After all, he’s not all that famous as a Storm Chaser. He tends to keep himself out of the limelight when it comes to that. He’s never been in it for the fame. After all, if he were, then he’d be in the arenas with the glory Chasers rather than out in the field hunting down a God most people don’t think is real anymore.</p><p>Or didn’t.</p><p>But the look that Hunk is giving him doesn’t scream ‘I know you from a Chase!’ It’s something else. Something more personal.</p><p>“Hey,” Hunk steps forward, finally releasing Lance and holding his hand out to Keith. “You probably don’t remember me, but we were actually in class together.”</p><p>“Class?” Keith asks dumbly without taking the offered hand. “What class?”</p><p>“Oh, right. You dropped out after the first year, didn’t you?” Hunk scratches the back of his head, glancing between Lance and Keith like he doesn’t know what to say next. He doesn’t have to say anything else for Keith to know exactly what he’s talking about.</p><p>“You were at the Garrison?” Keith asks. He glances at Lance, as if the amnesiac will have any idea what’s going on.</p><p>Lance just shrugs.</p><p>“Yeah, we both were.” Hunk motions between himself and Lance. “You would’ve been in our graduating class, but...uh...” He clears his throat like he’s afraid that Keith will be offended by the reminder that, no, he never ended up graduating university. He doesn’t care, but Hunk has no way of knowing that.</p><p>“Wait,” Keith says, doing a quick calculation in his mind. “That means you guys graduate this year?”</p><p>“We actually just graduated recently,” Hunk answers.</p><p>“That... makes sense,” Keith replies slowly. It’s been three years. Three years since he up and left that place in order to find Shiro and hunt Hurricane. The Garrison seems like a lifetime ago - of course he doesn’t recognize either of them.</p><p>The familiarity he felt towards Lance suddenly makes a lot more sense.</p><p>“Anyway,” Hunk rounds on Lance. “Why didn’t you call me? You knew I was worried sick!”</p><p>Lance’s eyes widen comically, and for some reason he shoots Keith a panicked glance. “He didn’t have his phone,” Keith defends. “Not when I found him.”</p><p>“Found -!”</p><p>“Listen, Hunk,” Lance starts gently. “I’m not sure...” he trails off like he has no idea how to say it. So Keith speaks for him.</p><p>“He lost his memory.”</p><p>Both of them turn to stare at him. Hunk’s face is filled with confusion and concern. Lance just looks irritated. Finally, Hunk laughs. “Good one, Keith. Never took you for a prankster.” He rounds back on Lance. “Seriously, though. Why didn’t you call me?”</p><p>“He’s not joking,” Lance confirms. “I got a concussion or something and now I don't remember anything.” Then, to prove his point, Lance pushes his bangs to the side, revealing the bandage taped against his forehead. It looks fresh; Shiro must've changed the dressing that morning. Keith isn't surprised. After all, Shiro's become an expert in caring for wounds in the past three years.</p><p>Hunk crosses his arms over his chest, still not looking convinced. “Oh yeah? Then how did you remember my name?”</p><p>And that is a good point actually.</p><p>If Lance really still has amnesia then how come he can remember Hunk as if they've known each other forever, and yet the day before he was barely even able to remember his own name? Keith wonders, again, if Lance is faking it.</p><p>“I don't know,” Lance replies. Keith's never hated a sentence so much in his life. “I just... felt it?”</p><p>“You felt it,” Keith deadpans.</p><p>“Yes,” Lance snaps at him. As if this entire thing is Keith's fault for existing and not Lance's for whatever stupid thing he did that landed him in this situation. “I know he's Hunk, because I just know that. The same way I know that I'm Lance and my sister's name is Veronica.”</p><p>Veronica? That's new. Since when did Lance have a sister?</p><p>Keith almost smacks himself for being so stupid. Since forever. Of course Lance has always had a sister. Just because this is Keith's first time hearing about it doesn't make it untrue.</p><p>It doesn't make him any less suspicious though.</p><p>“So,” Hunk starts, looking between the two of them like he's afraid they're about to come to blows. It's not a completely unfounded fear. “Do you remember us being in the Garrison together?”</p><p>Lance shakes his head slightly. “Sorry, buddy.” And he does really sound sorry. “I remember you and I remember me. I don't remember much else.”</p><p>Hunk makes a sound that's something like concern and rests his hand on Lance's shoulder. Lance doesn't flinch or move away. Instead, he leans into it. Keith isn't mad at all.</p><p>“Will the memories come back?” Hunk asks.</p><p>“I think so,” Lance replies, looking to Keith as if he should have all the answers.</p><p>Keith tilts his head slightly in confirmation. “The doctor said it was temporary.”</p><p>“Oh,” Hunk exhales in clear relief. “Good. You took him to a doctor.”</p><p>Keith bristles. Sure, he was a bit of an airhead in the Garrison, but was he really so bad that Hunk thinks he would leave a clearly injured person alone without taking them to the hospital? “Of course I did,” he snaps.</p><p>Hunk blinks, seeming taken aback by Keith's irritation. Good. Keith may not remember them, and Lance may not remember everything, but he's not going to stand around and let them think he's terrible.</p><p>Wait.</p><p>He doesn't know them, but Hunk knows him and Lance. Hunk remembers him at Garrison, and has clearly been friends with Lance for a long time. He remembers things.</p><p>Remembers things...</p><p>Remembers...</p><p>Hunk knows.</p><p>“Why was he here yesterday?” Keith asks suddenly. “Why didn't he run away from the Hurricane like everyone else?”</p><p>Hunk looks at him for a long time before answering simply, "Because he's a Storm Chaser."</p><p>---</p><p>It shouldn't be a surprise, Keith thinks as they walk through the wreckage left behind by the God, trying to ignore as Hunk chatters at Lance about all the things he'll remember eventually. After all, who else but a Storm Chaser would be in the middle of a Storm like that? Only very idiots, that's who.</p><p>And yet, of all the things Keith's encountered these past two days, that's what takes him most by surprise. He <em>shouldn't</em> be surprised. Really, he shouldn't. Of course Lance is a Storm Chaser. Keith had been looking around for others, but the Storm had been dense. Lance must've come at it from the other side. That's the only explanation for why Keith hadn't seen him.</p><p>Lance has a friend named Hunk and a sister named Veronica. He was apparently in the Garrison with Keith. And yet the fact that Lance had been hunting Hurricane, just like him, is what flashes in his mind like a siren.</p><p>Shiro had been so convinced that Lance was simply one of the unlucky. An innocent person who had been stranded in the middle of a Storm that came too suddenly. But somehow Keith had known. He'd known that there was more to it than that; that there was more to <em>Lance</em> than that. He'd felt a familiarity with him, and that had to be it.</p><p>Lance is a Storm Chaser.</p><p>Keith watches as Hunk continues to talk at Lance about all sorts of things as the two of them walk just slightly ahead of him. The words themselves flow in and out of one ear, but he registers every nod that Lance gives Hunk and every laugh that comes out of Lance's mouth, completely uninhibited.</p><p>He's not jealous of it. He's not jealous of anything.</p><p>“So, Keith.” Hunk's words register this time. He's looking over his shoulder at Keith as they continue to walk slowly back in the general direction where they'd left Shiro. “How did you find him in the first place?”</p><p>Keith blinks. He hasn't even told Shiro the entire story yet, let alone some stranger who used to be his classmate in a life he left behind years ago. Keith glances at Lance, who is also watching him. If they don't watch where they're walking, they're gonna fall over and Lance will end up with a second concussion. “I was chasing Hurricane,” Keith says, deciding to give a truncated version of the story. “And when the Storm stopped, I saw him lying on the ground.”</p><p>Hunk's face falls before he looks over at Lance. “So you didn't get it?”</p><p>Lance shrugs, turning to face forward again. “I guess not.”</p><p>Keith didn't get the power either.  Hurricane had vanished as quickly as it had appeared - like it had never been in there in the first place. If it weren't for the destruction around them, he'd think he'd imagined the entire thing. But he hadn't. Lance is proof of that. The totaled car stuck in a tree off to the right is proof of it.</p><p>“Next time,” Hunk assures Lance, patting him gently on the shoulder. “You'll get it next time.”</p><p>Again, Lance just shrugs.</p><p>In a way, Keith wishes he'd been the one to lose his memories instead. It would've been a lot nicer to not have to remember the moment he'd failed. The moment Hurricane had disappeared, leaving him alone and vulnerable with only an unconscious amnesiac as his only reminder of what had happened.</p><p>Lance would've known if he had Hurricane, even without memories. The feeling of a new magic flowing under your skin isn't something you can brush off or ignore. This makes Lance a dead end as far as <em>that</em> mystery goes. Now that Lance has found a real friend – someone who actually knows him and where he lives – Keith doesn't have to stick with him. He can abandon Lance to his lost memories without any guilt.</p><p>Keith tells himself that the thought doesn't bother him.</p><p>For someone he barely knows, Lance has been taking up a lot of Keith's head space. There's no reason for it. The guy's a Storm Chaser who was less lucky than Keith. The two of them had been victims of Hurricane, and there's nothing more to it than that.</p><p>But the memory of his stomach swooping as the ground rose to meet him, unable to reach his magics in that moment, haunts him. What had it been like for Lance? It must've been somewhat similar. Since Keith hadn’t seen him, Lance was probably flying lower than him. Somewhere just high enough where he took a bad fall but close enough to the ground that he hadn't hurt himself any more than a concussion. He wonders if Lance has a magic like Landslide – something that was able to save him at the last second.</p><p>He hopes so.</p><p>They finally reach the area where most of the work is being done. Shiro is, of course, in the thick of it all. From what Keith can tell, Shiro's actually taken over the restoration effort, and is directing people on where to go and what to do. Despite himself, a small smile appears. No matter how chaotic things get, Shiro is still Shiro. It's always nice to see that.</p><p>Less nice to see is how half the people in the area seem to just be watching Shiro as he lifts up what appears to be the entire wall of a two-story building all by himself. He's drawn a crowd of admirers, as usual, but only two thirds of them seem to be actually doing any work. Keith can't get Shiro's attention without drawing some onto himself, so instead he's forced to wait until the wall up and the people on the roof have secured it to whatever bits of structure are left. Luckily, Hunk and Lance have also stopped to watch.</p><p>“Damn, he's just as strong as he always was,” Hunk breathes, clearly impressed.</p><p>Oh. Right. Hunk and Lance had been in the same class at the Garrison as him. Of course they know who Shiro is; he'd been a legend. It hadn't been until the accident that he'd faded into his current obscurity.</p><p>As if sensing their eyes on him, Shiro turns. He waves when he spots Keith, ushering him over. But Keith doesn't budge. The last thing he wants is to see whatever had been trapped under that wall. He's been through enough of these Storms to know that it's never good. When he doesn't rush over, Shiro turns to one of the workers nearby. He says something that Keith can't hear before heading over to the three of them at a light jog. “Find anything?” he asks, once he's close enough to not shout.</p><p>Keith gestures at Hunk as an answer. Immediately, Hunk steps forward, hand outstretched. “Hunk Garrett,” he introduces himself. “I'm Lance's best friend.”</p><p>Shiro hesitates for a moment. Hunk is holding out his right, very human hand to shake. After a moment, he grasps it in his own metallic one. To his credit, Hunk doesn't flinch even slightly. “Nice to meet you.”</p><p>“Actually,” Hunk says, clearly embarrassed. “We met once before.”</p><p>Shiro frowns, retracting his hand. He looks over at Keith then at Lance before Hunk continues, “Lance and I were students at the Garrison. You gave a speech at our opening ceremony freshman year.” He scratches the back of his head. “You probably did that a lot though.”</p><p>“No,” Shiro says slowly, his brow still furrowed. “The only time I gave a speech for that was...”</p><p>He looks over at Keith as the puzzle pieces connect.</p><p>“Oh yeah,” Hunk speaks up. For possibly the first time in his life, Keith's grateful to have met someone who is actually talkative. “We were in the same class as Keith. Well, just that year.” He shrugs as if the whole situation of Keith leaving was nothing to him. To be fair, it probably wasn’t. “We just graduated. Crazy, right? That seems like it was yesterday. Time flies, huh?”</p><p>Shiro is still staring at Keith when he replies. “Yeah. It sure does.”</p><p>Keith knows what Shiro's thinking, even without him saying anything, so he shakes his head minutely. This has nothing to do with Shiro's disappearance. Well, chasing Hurricane does. But Lance and Hunk don’t. All of that is just coincidence. He hadn't recognized Lance when he'd seen him unconscious, and finding Hunk out here had been lucky but nothing more than that.</p><p>Shiro doesn't believe him, but regardless, he turns back to Lance. “Does this mean your memories are back?” he asks kindly.</p><p>Lance smiles sheepishly. “No. Sorry.”</p><p>“He remembered my name but not anything else,” Hunk supplies. “Same as you guys.”</p><p>Keith stares at him while Shiro responds. “Lance didn't recognize us.”</p><p>“Oh. Really?”</p><p>“Why would he?” Keith asks.</p><p>“Uh...” Hunk looks over at Lance who gives no reaction beyond watching his friend with a questioning expression. “Just that you were both in the Garrison. Lance usually has a really good memory for faces like that.”</p><p>Keith frowns. He doesn't know Hunk beyond the past few minutes they've spent together, but he can tell that the guy's lying.</p><p>“That's a shame,” Shiro remarks lightly. His attention is already being drawn back to the crowd trying in vain to finish putting together the house without Shiro's help. “Keith, I'm going to stay here for a little longer. Hunk, can you give Keith your number so we can contact you again? I haven't had a chance to wash Lance's clothes.” He doesn't wait for an answer before running back to the group who look like they're struggling to hold up a power line. For their sakes, Keith hopes power to the area has been shut off.</p><p>Shiro will handle it.</p><p>He turns back to the other two, about to say something like that when his voice dies in his throat. This is goodbye.</p><p>Lance has his best friend now; someone he actually remembers. Being with Hunk will be better for him than staying with Keith or even Shiro, because unlike the two of them Hunk can actually help get Lance's memories back. Sure, Shiro would've been gracious and helpful if Hunk hadn't come along, but Keith is no good at any of that. So really, this is for the best.</p><p>“Here,” Hunk reaches out his hand, stepping between Keith and Lance. “Give me your phone and I can put both our numbers in.”</p><p>“I thought Lance's was lost?” Keith asks as he hands over his phone to Hunk. He still has almost half his battery left. It would've been embarrassing if it were dead already.</p><p>“Probably,” Hunk agrees without looking up from the screen. “But Lance loses his phone all the time when he's out Chasing. This isn't the first time we've had to replace it.” There's something about the way he says it, the casual way he throws around the term 'we' that gets to Keith. It occurs to him that Hunk knows Lance's number by heart, which is by no means a common thing these days. Sure, Keith knows Shiro's – better than he knows his own – but Keith also isn't normal. He and Shiro are as close as family. Of course he has his number memorized. But Hunk had called himself and Lance 'best friends.'</p><p>Maybe there's more to it than that.</p><p>Eventually Hunk hands Keith his phone back, adding two more numbers to the three Keith already had. Now instead of having just Shiro and the two closest hospitals, he has Shiro, Hunk, and Lance.</p><p>Not that the last number will do him any good at the moment.</p><p>“Should I call you after Shiro does the laundry then?” Keith asks.</p><p>Hunk inclines his head in a half nod. “Or I can have Lance call you after we get his new phone. Oh, speaking of that, what's your number?”</p><p>Keith doesn't remember it. He never needs to know his own number, so instead he sends a text to Hunk. [This is Keith] Simple. To the point. He thinks about it for a moment then forwards the same message to Lance, for all the good it will do. If Keith's learned anything from watching Finding Nemo with Shiro, it's that the second Lance walks away with Hunk, he'll forget all about Keith. He'll forget about him, the Storm, the fact that he has a concussion, how Keith stayed up with him all night, and even that the clothes he's wearing aren't his own.</p><p>It doesn't bother Keith at all. In fact, it's better this way.</p><p>“Sure,” Keith agrees, trying to come across as nonchalant. “That's fine.”</p><p>“Cool.” Hunk tucks his phone back in his pocket. “We should probably go then. Lance?”</p><p>Lance nods. Hunk turns and walks in the opposite direction of Shiro's apartment, but Lance doesn't immediately follow. He's still standing there, hands shoved in the pockets of the pants Keith had lent him this morning, and is pointedly not making eye contact with Keith. “Thanks,” Lance mumbles eventually.</p><p>“Yeah,” Keith responds. Intelligently. “See you around then.”</p><p>Lance gives him one more nod before walking away. Keith's chest doesn't hurt seeing Lance go.</p><p>It's just the bruise from his rib reminding him that he's still injured.</p><p>---</p><p>Keith does end up helping Shiro out after Hunk and Lance leave. He doesn't do anything like lift up buildings or dig through rubble, but Keith isn't heartless. He can't stand around here like the gawkers, not helping. He could've gone back to Shiro's apartment alone, he supposes, but there are blankets sitting on the couch that need to be put away, and the thought of doing that alone leaves Keith with a hollow sensation in his stomach. Eventually, he's going to have to tell Shiro the whole story of chasing Hurricane. There isn't much he hasn't said, but the fact that he got in that far and hadn't noticed another Chaser there with him is bound to earn him a lecture. So rather than deal with that, he hauls away trees that have already been moved to the road and helps toss away the rubble that's been deemed too damaged to repair.</p><p>That's the thing about the Storm Gods. If you're not a Chaser, they're nothing more than a natural disaster gone too far. Unlike a normal storm, the Gods appear suddenly and leave just as soon. They may have names like “Volcano” and “Wildfire” but the damage they leave in their wake is amplified by their magic and the magic of the Chasers who come rushing after them in order to harness their power. But because of their power and because of the sheer destruction that follows, there's never any shortage of people to help out. Eventually, the gawkers either leave or get over their awe of Shiro and actually offer assistance.</p><p>At least they're helping now.</p><p>People come and go, though several stay. Those who come and go are clearly not from here, because they talk the whole time. They chatter away about their theories as to what happened, the Storm arena games that had happened earlier that week, and rumors of some guy pretending to be a demi-god. Keith assumes that those who stay are the ones who live here and have a stake in the matter. He doubts there are others like Shiro who help just for the sake of helping even though his home is miles from any of this. They work until sunset when the waning light reveals that, yes, the power in this area has been turned off. It's both lucky and unlucky. They've made real progress, and Keith doesn't like to stop when he's on a roll, but he also can't tell if the thing he picked up is a tree branch or a former light pole, so it's time to pack it in.</p><p>He's soaked in sweat and exhausted now that he takes stock of himself. He gratefully takes a cup of water offered by one of the volunteers floating around and drains the entire thing in one go before wiping off his mouth with the back of his hand. He's starving too, now that he thinks about it. He hasn't eaten anything since breakfast.</p><p>“Ready?” Shiro asks, appearing at his side. Even in the dim light, Keith can tell that he's drenched in sweat as well. It makes sense; he'd done most of the heavy lifting of everyone here. Unlike Keith, he doesn't seem afraid of what he'll find under the rubble. Despite everything that's happened to him, Shiro's always faced the horrors head on.</p><p>But now is not the time to think about that.</p><p>“Yeah,” Keith agrees. The place is less of a mess than when they got there, Keith will give it that. No one will be moving back in anytime soon, but it'll be easier for them to rebuild now. And it could've been a lot worse.</p><p>Their walk back to Shiro's car is quiet, as is the drive the rest of the way to the apartment. Keith knows that Shiro's going to want to talk tonight – he doesn't like putting off conversations like this for too long – but he doesn't want to deal with that while he's disgusting, so he showers first. Shiro thankfully doesn't push it, going to shower after Keith's out and changed.</p><p>Shiro waits until they're both done with their food before broaching the topic. “Are you going to tell me what happened?” he asks after Keith's finished the last of the spinach on his plate.</p><p>“Nothing happened,” Keith answers lightly. He knows he's going to have to explain better than that, but it doesn't stop him from being difficult. Shiro swipes the plate away from under his eyes, the action clearly telling Keith that won't be enough of an answer.</p><p>“You didn't get Hurricane's power,” Shiro remarks. Keith winces. “That much is obvious.”</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>“And yet it stopped attacking at some point.”</p><p>“I know,” Keith repeats.</p><p>“So are you going to tell me what really happened or not?”</p><p>“Nothing happened,” Keith insists.</p><p>Shiro crosses his arms over his chest and leans back against the sink, leveling his eyes on Keith. “I've been in that Storm before, Keith. I know the answer isn't ‘nothing happened’.”</p><p>It's a low blow. A reminder of the past that Keith almost always tries to avoid – a past that had been inadvertently brought back when Hunk had talked so casually about the Garrison. But if Keith is honest, it's a topic that's always on his mind.</p><p>“I was chasing it,” Keith explains. “It took more than...” He hesitates a moment before continuing, “It took a lot more than I expected to even get close.” Shiro nods. “But once I reached the eye it just. It stopped.”</p><p>“It stopped?” Shiro frowns.</p><p>“Everything stopped,” Keith clarifies. “I couldn't feel my magics either.”</p><p>Shiro's eyes widen. “You –“</p><p>“I got Landslide back in time to catch me,” Keith assures him. “But for a moment I couldn't feel anything.”</p><p>“And you didn't see anything? The God?” Shiro asks.</p><p>Keith shakes his head. “I saw the eye. Then all I saw was the ground.”</p><p>Shiro's frown deepens. He sits down, abandoning his cleaning to stare at the table with an expression Keith hasn't seen before. He looks as if the entire world has started rotating in reverse.</p><p>“What?” Keith asks, the silence getting to him.</p><p>“Nothing,” Shiro responds, still glaring at the table.</p><p>This time, Keith's the one to cross his arms. “Now <em>you're</em> pulling that on <em>me</em>?”</p><p>Shiro sighs and looks back up at Keith. “Taking away your magic isn't something that just happens,” he explains as if he's back at the Garrison calmly teaching a class.</p><p>“I know that,” Keith says. “I'm not a complete idiot. I knew it was weird.”</p><p>“No,” Shiro insists. “It's not just weird. It doesn't happen. Ever. Not unless...” he trails off, a distant stare in his eyes.</p><p>“Unless?” Keith prompts when Shiro doesn't continue.</p><p>“Unless a God was there. In the flesh.”</p><p>They sit there in silence for a beat before Keith snorts. “Good one, Shiro. You almost had me going.”</p><p>Shiro turns his glare to him. “I'm serious Keith.”</p><p>Keith stares back, as if they're playing some sick game of chicken where Shiro will eventually break and call Keith gullible then ruffle his hair and say something like <em>Of course you just ran out of juice. That's the way Hurricane is, after all</em>. But Shiro doesn't budge, and eventually Keith is the one who caves. “You're actually serious?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“There wasn't a God there,” Keith insists. “I would've seen them.”</p><p>“You said yourself that you couldn't see anything but the ground,” Shiro points out.</p><p>Keith wants to argue with that, but he can’t. He <em>hadn't</em> seen anything. He'd been so concerned with losing contact with his magic while falling from the sky that he hadn't been able to see anything or hear anything outside of the wind in his ears as he'd plummeted to the earth. And once he'd finally come to, all he'd seen was –</p><p>“Do you think Lance saw them?” Keith asks.</p><p>Shiro tilts his head thoughtfully. “If he did that would make sense. His amnesia... I don't think it's normal.”</p><p>“I thought the doctors said he was fine.”</p><p>“Well, they didn't see anything strange from what they told me, but this isn't how memory loss normally works.”</p><p>“Yeah, but Lance is weird,” Keith points out.</p><p>“You don't know him,” Shiro reminds him.</p><p>Keith opens his mouth to argue with that before closing it. Again, Shiro's right: Keith <em>doesn't</em> know Lance. He doesn't know a thing about him aside from that they were apparently in the Garrison together three years earlier and that he has a unique talent for making Keith rise to his bait. How could Keith even assume to know him? He's barely interacted with the guy. “He seems weird,” Keith mumbles.</p><p>“Most Storm Chasers are,” Shiro reasons.</p><p>But Lance is <em>weirder</em>. He is. Who else would jump into Hurricane like that?</p><p>Aside from Keith, but his is a personal vendetta. It’s different.</p><p>“So you think he saw something,” Keith states, returning the subject to where it belongs.</p><p>Shiro hums. “I think there were two Storm Chasers in the Hurricane, and neither of them got its power.” He leans forward, resting his chin against his metallic palm while his other hand taps gently on the table. “And I think that if you didn't see anything, then there's a chance that he did.”</p><p>Keith hadn't exactly been <em>looking</em> for another reason to speak with Lance again, but here it is. If it can even count.</p><p>Damn it, why does nothing make sense anymore?</p><p>“Okay,” he says out loud, not answering anything that Shiro had asked. “Okay.”</p><p>“Okay?” Shiro asks.</p><p>“Okay.”</p><p>---</p><p>In the end, Keith's the one who does the laundry. He waits about two days before the itch becomes unbearable – he's never been very patient – and he dumps Lance’s outfit into the wash along with all of Keith’s own clothes. He hovers around the dryer while it runs, opening it every time it so much as pauses to feel if the clothes are still damp. They need to be completely dry but not too warm or else he'll look desperate. And he isn't desperate.</p><p>He ends up having to wait for the dryer to run a complete cycle and a half since he'd opened it so many times. Keith's patience is running thin, and by the time the clothes are finally dry, he's given up on waiting for them to cool off. Instead, he pulls all of Lance's clothes into a heap in his lap and sends a text to both Lance and Hunk.</p><p>[your clothes are clean]</p><p>And then he waits.</p><p>And waits.</p><p>And</p><p>waits.</p><p>The only thing Keith hates more than waiting is a mystery. So waiting for a mystery? It's complete torture. That's all Lance is: a mystery.</p><p>Nothing more.</p><p>Hunk is the one to respond first. [Cool. What's your address?]</p><p>Keith responds quickly with Shiro's address, and Hunk sends back an almost immediate. [On the way]</p><p>Keith isn't nervous in the slightest. But the number of disaster scenarios running through his head are staggering. Keith's always considered himself a realist rather than pessimistic or optimistic, but maybe he is a pessimist.</p><p>Or maybe he just needs to get out more.</p><p>It's an eternity before he hears the door buzz. Shiro isn't here, for which Keith is simultaneously relieved and panicked about. On the one hand, he doesn't have to worry about Shiro making comments about how on edge he is just to give someone back their clothes. On the other hand, if Shiro <em>had</em> been there, he'd know how to talk to Hunk and Lance to ease the tension.</p><p>But it's too late now.</p><p>Keith takes a deep breath, relaxing his shoulders at least before he answers the door. He expects to see both Hunk and Lance there, but instead Lance is the only one standing in the hall. “Oh,” Keith greets a little stupidly. “Hey.”</p><p>“Hey,” Lance answers. They stand there silently for a moment before Lance adds, “Are you gonna let me in?”</p><p>“Oh,” Keith repeats. “Sure.” He holds open the door as Lance walks in. Belatedly, Keith realizes he'd left Lance's clothes in a crumpled pile next to the dryer along with his own clothes rather than folding them up the way Shiro would've. That would've been polite.</p><p>“Hey,” Lance says again, and Keith thinks maybe he's not the only one feeling awkward. That knowledge grounds him slightly. “Hunk told me I should come over in person.” He says it like it's not something he'd wanted to do; it's something Hunk is forcing him to do.</p><p>Keith's stomach drops several inches. “I washed your clothes,” he offers.</p><p>“No, I mean.” Lance sighs, shaking his head while looking at the ground. “Sorry. This is harder than I thought.”</p><p>Keith's just confused now. “What is?” he asks, trying to figure out what he's missed in the past minute.</p><p>“I remembered some stuff,” Lance starts.</p><p>Almost immediately, Keith's entire body jerks. This could be it. Without him even needing to ask, he might get all the answers for what had happened that day. Had Lance seen Hurricane's face? Or had he tumbled to the ground like Keith: unable to see anything aside from the Earth spinning and moving ever closer to him?</p><p>“Not about the Storm,” Lance clarifies, as if reading Keith’s mind. “That part's still pretty hazy.”</p><p>“Oh.” Keith's shoulders droop.</p><p>“But about things before that. The Garrison and my family. Stuff like that.”</p><p>“Oh,” Keith says again. He needs to get a better vocabulary. “That's... good?”</p><p>“I mean yeah,” Lance smiles to himself. “I didn't know it, but I really missed them.”</p><p>Keith makes a belated motion to reach out before stopping himself. He'd be crap at comforting Lance over this. He's never had a family, not really.</p><p>“But I also remember seeing you. At the Garrison.”</p><p>Keith's stomach drops further, all the way down to his feet. His time at the Garrison is something he'd rather forget, and yet this is the second time within a week that it's come up. “Hunk said we were in the same class,” he responds, forcing a lightness into his voice that he doesn't quite feel.</p><p>Lance nods. “Yeah. We were.”</p><p>Keith bites his lip hard so he doesn't blurt out <em>So?</em> And instead waits patiently - a Keith form of patient - for Lance to say what's on his mind.</p><p>“Anyway I'm sorry I forgot you.”</p><p>Keith blinks once.</p><p>Twice.</p><p>Takes a breath.</p><p>“What?” he asks, not altogether certain he heard that right.</p><p>“I said I'm sorry I forgot you,” Lance repeats petulantly. “I probably looked like a complete idiot, not even able to recognize the guy who was easily ranked number one –”</p><p>“It's fine,” Keith interrupts before Lance can go too far reminiscing about times that Keith wants nothing more than to leave in the past. “There were a lot of students. It's not a big deal.”</p><p>Lance squints at him for a moment before leaning in as if searching for something. Keith backs up on instinct. “What are you doing?” he demands.</p><p>“You don't remember me, do you?” Lance accuses.</p><p>Keith swallows. A few days ago, this hadn't been a big deal. Lance hadn't remembered him and he hadn't remembered Lance. Fair is fair. Hunk hadn't minded at all, but the look Lance is giving him makes him think that, yeah, he minds.</p><p>“No,” he admits.</p><p>He could've lied, Keith realizes a split second after the words leave his lips. It would've been better if he'd lied. Lance's face twists into something that can't be interpreted as anything but hurt before it melts smoothly into a smile again. “I knew it!” Lance exclaims, voice altogether too loud for Shiro's living room. “I mean you were number one. Of course you don't remember any of the rest of us.”</p><p>He doesn't. Keith had never made friends at the Garrison, because he hadn't wanted to be there in the first place. But Shiro had insisted. <em>It'll be a good opportunity</em>, he'd said over and over. He'd wheedled Keith until Keith had caved and applied. The structure was too rigid, as Keith had suspected, and the pace was far, far too slow for him to stay interested.</p><p>Then Hurricane had happened.</p><p>And Shiro had vanished.</p><p>So Keith had vanished too.</p><p>He mentally shakes himself away from those memories. It's never a good idea for him to go down that path. “I didn't notice much,” Keith confesses. He'd already been honest once. “Especially other people.”</p><p>Lance visibly winces. “Right,” he says, voice still too loud. “Of course not.”</p><p>“No.” Keith reaches out and grabs Lance's arm. It's just like when they'd first made it out of Hurricane and into Shiro's car; he's convinced that Lance is gonna run away. “It's not because I was number one or whatever. It's just. I was never... good. With people.”</p><p>Lance stares down at Keith's fingers wrapped around his arm, silent for long enough that Keith carefully peels them off, afraid that he's somehow gone too far without knowing what he's even done. “I don't know about that,” Lance whispers. It's so quiet that if Keith hadn't been listening so closely, he wouldn't have heard it.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>Lance's head jerks up, his cheeks a pale pink. “Nothing,” he assures Keith too fast.</p><p>Keith's about to argue when Lance speaks again. “Phew. Well. I'm glad I got that out of the way.” He steps past Keith, clapping his hands together like he'd completed an especially challenging job. “So where are my clothes anyway?”</p><p>“Uh. This way.” Keith leads him back to the laundry room without thinking. He realizes as soon as he sees the pile of clothes that he should've had Lance wait in the living room. Then he could've folded them up and brought them out nicely rather than looking like he'd rushed the entire thing and messaged Lance the second the dryer stopped.</p><p>Which is exactly what he did.</p><p>“Wow,” Lance remarks dryly when he sees his clothes. “Thanks.”</p><p>Keith can't think of a response in time before Lance pulls his clothes into his arms. “Anyway, it's been fun, but I should go.”</p><p>“Do you have to?” Keith blurts out. He bites down hard on his lips once the words escape as if they'd betrayed him.</p><p>Because they had.</p><p>“I meant...” he trails off, not knowing what he'd meant. Nothing, he's sure. Nothing important. “Is your head better?”</p><p>Lance gives him a look that Keith is pretty sure he couldn't read even if he had known him for years. He stares for a moment before pushing back his bangs and revealing his forehead to Keith. The bruise is still there, but the bandage is gone now. The cut doesn't look like it got infected or anything, which is probably the most that Keith can hope for, and the bump is noticeably smaller than it had been that first day. It's still a nasty mix of blue, purple, and yellow, which at least means it's healing. “Could be worse,” Lance says. “And at least I'm starting to get some of my memories back.”</p><p>“Only some?” Keith presses.</p><p>“I don't think I'll ever remember everything about the storm,” Lance reasons. “But I'm hoping to get more things back. Though, I'm pretty sure Hunk is making up some of these stories just to mess with me. I can't be <em>that</em> bad at picking up girls...” He frowns at Keith. “What?”</p><p>Keith blinks and only then realizes that he'd been smiling. He touches his lips self-consciously; they've betrayed him again. “Nothing,” he assures Lance. Nothing bad.</p><p>Lance squints at him untrustingly, but doesn't push it. “Right. Well...” He gestures at Keith using the pile of laundry cradled in his arms. “Thanks again for the clothes. And also the whole ‘saving my life’ thing or whatever.”</p><p>This is it then.</p><p>Keith leads him to the door as he searches for a reason, an excuse, to keep Lance here with him. Even to himself he doesn't have a good enough reason, so he's never going to be able to sell it without Lance getting suspicious.</p><p>Even though there's nothing to be suspicious <em>of</em>.</p><p>Keith holds open the door as Lance slips on his shoes. He makes it until Lance passes over the threshold, then he can't keep it in any longer. “Uh,” he blurts out.</p><p>Lance turns around.</p><p>“Do you want...” Keith trails off, not having an ending to that question.</p><p>Lance raises his eyebrow. “Do I want what?” he prompts when Keith doesn't continue.</p><p>“Train,” Keith supplies, his brain finally catching up with his mouth. “We should train together. Sometime. Do you want to?”</p><p>That unreadable expression makes its way onto Lance's face again. Maybe Keith will be able to read it eventually if he spends more time with him. Maybe he'll figure it out and know what Lance is thinking when he looks like that.</p><p>Maybe.</p><p>Maybe a lot of things. But all of them hinge on Lance's answer, which he still hasn't given. Keith almost asks a second time, but he's not that stupid. So instead he waits, doing his best not to fidget.</p><p>“Sure,” Lance agrees eventually.</p><p>“Yeah?” Keith asks. He sounds far too excited, even to his own ears.</p><p>“Yeah,” Lance echoes. “I mean: why not? Could be fun.”</p><p>“Cool.”</p><p>“Cool.”</p><p>They both stand there awkwardly while Keith continues to hold the door open. He's certain he's supposed to be the one to speak next, even if he doesn't know what to say. “I'll text you then?” he tries.</p><p>“I still don't have a new phone.” That explains why Hunk had been the one messaging him earlier.</p><p>“Ah.”</p><p>“Hunk's taking me to get one tomorrow. Give me your number and I'll call you?” Lance offers.</p><p>Keith's mind blanks. He has no idea what his number is at the best of times, but right now he's not sure he could even conjure Shiro's out of thin air. “I gave it to Hunk,” he settles on. “You should ask him.”</p><p>Lance's brow furrows deep enough that his bruise peeks out from behind his bangs. It looks painful, but he doesn't wince the way he had to Keith's words earlier. “Alright,” he replies. “See ya, then.” He raises his hand in a wave before heading off down the hallway.</p><p>“See ya.”</p><p>When Keith closes the door, he pretends the conversation wasn't as awkward as it had felt.</p><p>---</p><p>He doesn't bring it up when Shiro finally comes home. There's no reason to tell him, after all.</p><p>Keith isn't hiding anything. It's just that Shiro hasn't asked, and he doesn't need to tell him about every insignificant interaction he has with other people. He doesn't have to tell him about the significant ones either. Keith doesn't have to tell Shiro anything.</p><p>It's a few days after, when Keith has finally finished putting away all his clothes, that he gets a text from one of the three phone numbers that have actual names attached to their contact IDs.</p><p>[got phone]</p><p>His phone buzzes again, and a second message appears.</p><p>[this is lance]</p><p>Keith doesn't reply right away. He doesn't know what to say aside from ‘I know’ and he's perfectly aware at how rude that would be. Instead, he spends the next few hours going over different responses. He stares at his phone, composing messages in his head before trying – and failing – to watch some show on Netflix. He does pushups to distract himself.</p><p>Then he stares at his phone again.</p><p>After about the five hundredth time he opens the message, he finally has a response he thinks might work.</p><p>[Good to hear]</p><p>He waits a moment before sending a follow on, just like Lance had.</p><p>[This is Keith]</p><p>He's rewarded for his efforts with a series of rectangles containing an X inside which he knows means his phone is several years too old. Maybe he can copy-paste them into a search engine somehow?</p><p>Before he can figure out how to interpret the mysterious emojis, Lance texts again. [i thought hunk gave me the wrong number]</p><p>[Why?] Keith asks, genuinely curious</p><p>[he pranks me a lot]</p><p>[Not a prank] Keith assures him. He has to keep the conversation going somehow, but all his responses are stiff and lifeless. Luckily, Lance doesn't seem to mind.</p><p>[still wanna train?]</p><p>Keith's heart thuds against his ribcage. [Sure] he replies simply. He stares at the message for a bit, wondering if it sounded too passive. Will Lance think he doesn't mean it? Is ‘sure’ not sure enough in texts? He wants to rip the message out of the phone and shove it back into his fingers and start over. He has no idea how this all sounds to Lance – the only person he's really texted is Shiro, and he actually knows Shiro. Shiro knows what Keith means when he sends single-word responses. Maybe he should send Shiro over to Lance's place so he can help interpret Keith's texts so Keith won't look like a complete moron.</p><p>[cool] Lance replies, not seeming to read as much into the message as Keith himself is. [time?] He's clearly the type to send texts faster than he thinks. Almost every single message he's sent Keith has had a second one attached to it, like he hadn't finished his sentence before he'd clicked send.</p><p>Keith doesn't mind that at all.</p><p>[When are you free?] Keith asks instead. He's always free. Keith doesn't have school or a steady job. He handles odds and ends jobs - usually contract type work - so he doesn't have a real schedule. And aside from his Chasing, Keith doesn't have many hobbies. He trains, he reads, and he listens to music.</p><p>But he hates crowds, so he avoids gyms, book clubs, and concerts.</p><p>[tomorrow]</p><p>[?]</p><p>Lance sends the two messages rapid fire again, as if he'd sent the first one before remembering that he'd needed to add the question mark at the end.</p><p>[Yes] Keith replies, instantly kicking himself for sending another one word answer after he'd <em>just thought about how stupid that was</em>.</p><p>[time?] This time, Lance remembers to put the question mark in the same text as the word.</p><p>[Morning?] Keith offers.</p><p>[ew] the response is immediate and decisive. [pass]</p><p>[Afternoon?] Keith sends as an alternative.</p><p>The next message is another stream of what Keith knows are emojis, even if he can only read a couple of the basic smiley faces. </p><p>He gathers that's Lance's version of a yes, so Keith asks, [Where?]</p><p>[you invited me dude]</p><p>[tell me and i'll show up]</p><p>Keith's stomach does something akin to a back flip. He doesn't read too much – anything at all – into it, and instead sends Lance the rough address of an unpopulated field where he's been training lately. People don't hang around there and no one's yelled at him yet.</p><p>Better than a Chaser gym. He hates those places, even if they do have state of the art equipment.</p><p>[sure!] comes Lance's reply. [see ya there]</p><p>It's as obvious a hint as any that Lance is done with the conversation, so Keith leaves it alone after that. He doesn't want to appear any more neurotic than he already has.</p><p>---</p><p>He spends most of the night and the next morning going over scenarios in his head for no reason. This isn't Keith's first time at the rodeo – he's been training for years at this point. There's no reason for him to obsess over this as if he'd taken off three months.</p><p>Keith tries to focus on books and the same Netflix show he'd tried the day before, but eventually he gives up. He can't think of anything except this afternoon, so he gives in and lets the thoughts take over.</p><p>He can't get to Hurricane the way he is, that much is clear. He needs to improve his stamina with Wildfire, he needs Volcano to be stronger in order to protect him from the cold and the wind, he needs Tornado to take him higher so he can reach the eye of the Storm without running out of juice. Hell, what he really needs to do is find the nearest blizzard – a non-magical one would do – and practice there. He could ask Shiro...</p><p>No. He's not going there.</p><p>Once, Shiro could've made money off Chasing full time, but after the accident, there's no way that's going to happen. At one point, Keith had thought that Shiro would take a break, recover and get used to his prosthetic, and then jump right back into it. But instead he's settled into this life. He works a normal job: a regular 9 to 5 pushing pencils. It's the kind of job he'd claimed once to never want.</p><p>Why he'd changed his mind, Keith will never understand.</p><p>Keith gets lost in his thoughts as he picks up his guest bedroom so Shiro won't glare at him tonight before he finally notices the clock. He'd spent so much time trying to stop himself from stressing over his training session that he's going to be late.</p><p>Perfect.</p><p>He races out of the apartment so fast that he almost forgets to lock the door behind him. Almost.</p><p>Shiro had taken his car, of course, and Keith still hasn't repaired his bike. He's forced to hoof it. Keith refrains from using his powers, saving them for the actual training, but it's a close thing. He manages to catch the bus right as it's about to leave, which is the only thing that saves him from having to run the whole way.</p><p>The nearest stop to the field is a good half-mile away, which means that Keith ends up running anyway. He slows down as he notices a figure standing in front of the fence. Lance turns, shooting a crooked smile in his direction. “Hey,” he greets. “For a second I thought you were gonna stand me up.”</p><p>“I lost track of time,” Keith admits, slowing to a halt a solid foot away from Lance. “Sorry,” he adds belatedly.</p><p>Lance waves his hand casually. “No biggie. Unless...”</p><p>“Unless?” Keith prompts.</p><p>Lance glances side to side dramatically. “You didn't bring me here to kill me did you?”</p><p>Keith blanches. “Why would I –?”</p><p>“I'm just saying,” Lance shrugs.</p><p>“I'm not going to kill you,” Keith assures him, because for some reason this is something he needs to say now.</p><p>“Well good.”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>Once again, an awkward silence falls between them. Keith wishes he were better at social interactions, even if just when around Lance. He seems to come across as an idiot.</p><p>“So,” Lance is the one to break the silence. Of course. “You wanted to train?”</p><p>Right. Keith hadn't called him out here so they could play an awkward game of stare chicken. “I usually train in the field.” He gestures to the dead grass on the other side of the fence beside them.</p><p>“Is that legal?” Lance asks, looking over at the field in question.</p><p>“No one's complained yet.”</p><p>Lance snorts. “That doesn't mean it's not illegal.” Though the legality of it doesn't seem to bother him, because he almost immediately heads to the short wooden fence and climbs easily over it.</p><p>“It doesn't bother you?” Keith asks, doing the same.</p><p>“Nah. Besides, I'm curious to see how a prodigy trains.”</p><p>Prodigy.</p><p>Keith's stomach sinks. It's been a long time since he was called that. He'd always hated it. Prodigy is the name you give to someone who never had to work a day in their lives, but Keith had worked hard. He still does. The feel of magic might come easily to him, but he still has to hone them the same as everyone else. Shiro had always told him: <em>no matter how much talent you have, you won't be able to do anything if you don't know how to use it</em>.</p><p>“I doubt it's that different than everyone else,” Keith responds, hoping he doesn't sound as irritated as he feels. He's not sure he succeeds, but Lance doesn't call him out on it.</p><p>“Well,” Lance argues. “Most people I've trained with don't use an abandoned field.” </p><p>Keith isn't remotely upset that Lance has trained with other people. Not upset.</p><p>After all, Lance had stayed at the Garrison far longer than him. Of course he's trained with others. Lance is the type of person who probably has friends all over the world and he's trained with every single one of them.</p><p>“Most people you've trained with probably spend more time showing off than they do actually training,” Keith retorts. It's mean, he knows, but he can't help but think of the gym he'd gone to once with Shiro. Pompous asses spent more time flexing their magics than actually honing them. What a waste of good equipment.</p><p>He'd never gone back.</p><p>“Uh, duh?" Lance replies. “That's kinda the point.”</p><p>“That's why I don't do gyms,” Keith says. He leads them away from the road to where they can actually train. This field isn't the largest he's used, but it has a dip – almost a hill – that keeps him mostly hidden from the street. Though it’s still hard to hide magic.</p><p>“Okay, weirdo.”</p><p>And just for that, Keith shoots off a burst of fire at him.</p><p>Lance yelps, dodging out of the way as the flame passes him, fizzling out as it moves. “What was that for?” he demands, rounding on Keith.</p><p>“Calling me a weirdo.”</p><p>Lance's mouth drops open, but if he has an actual retort for that, it doesn't come out. He stares at Keith as if he's not sure what to make of him. So Keith settles into a battle stance, facing Lance. “We're here to train, right?” he reminds Lance. “Hit me with something.”</p><p>At that, Lance seems to find his voice again. “You want me to throw something at you?”</p><p>“Not something,” Keith clarifies. “One of your magics.” It occurs to him as soon as he says it that Lance has recently had a concussion. He'd forgotten everything a few days ago. Had he forgotten how to use his powers too?</p><p>But Lance doesn't seem phased. “Does it matter which?”</p><p>Keith shakes his head. “Whichever you want.” He hasn't even begun to guess which Storms Lance has built up, but he's not surprised that he's excited to find out.</p><p>An icicle shaped roughly like a spear flies at him less than a second later. Keith melts it easily, separating it so the water falls around him. He doesn't give Lance a chance to react, instead aiming another bolt of fire at him. Lance hadn't had a chance to react properly the last time; he deserves a second chance.</p><p>The fire disappears in a puff of smoke and the air around Keith gets noticeably colder. Two moves in a row using water and ice.</p><p>Lance is almost his exact opposite.</p><p>They spar for a while like that, only using fire and ice. Keith could do more – his magics are singing for him to do more – but Lance is still recovering from his injury. He's not going to push it.</p><p>Lance is the one to change the pace.</p><p>A downpour of rain falls onto Keith's head, putting out his flame before he can shoot it at Lance and leaving him feeling like a wet dog while Lance laughs at him.</p><p>Well. Okay then.</p><p>Lance may have been the one to start it, but Keith escalates the situation and Lance rises to meet it every time. By the end, Keith feels like he knows Lance better than if he'd sat down and talked to him for several hours. He has at least two – maybe three – water based magics, he doesn't have any fire, and they both share Tornado. Keith doesn't use Landslide at all during their spar, and Lance doesn't use any earth-based powers either. He isn't sure if there's a winner at the end – not that it's a competition – but they both run out of their main Storms and end up throwing Tornadoes back and forth at each other until the wind fizzles out. Keith still has a little Tornado left inside, but Lance appears to have run out first.</p><p>He supposes that means he won.</p><p>Lance collapses back on the ground in a heap, arms sprawled out at his sides. For a moment, Keith's afraid he went overboard. Shiro's always warned him that he can be too intense for most people, and Lance does have an actual serious injury, even if Keith keeps forgetting about it.</p><p>But then Lance lets out a laugh. “That wasn't what I expected.”</p><p>“What?” Keith asks. His legs are starting to shake from running and kicking fireballs at Lance, so he takes a seat on the ground near the other Chaser.</p><p>“You,” Lance answers. “Training.”</p><p>Keith frowns at the dead grass just to the side of Lance's head. “What did you expect?”</p><p>Lance raises his hand slightly off the ground before flopping it down. He's staring at the sky rather than Keith. “I dunno. Squats maybe? Or running.”</p><p>“Squats and running,” Keith repeats slowly.</p><p>“Or push-ups.”</p><p>“Push-ups,” Keith says.</p><p>“Hey! I didn't know!” Lance declares defensively.</p><p>“I don't understand why you think training would be something like that.”</p><p>Finally, Lance turns his head and makes eye contact with Keith. “You never specified.”</p><p>“I said training, not wasting time,” Keith tells him seriously.</p><p>For some reason, Lance seems to find that hilarious. He laughs, rolling onto his side so that his entire body is facing Keith. His hand is mere inches from Keith's knee.</p><p>“What?” Keith asks again, certain he's missing something.</p><p>“Just... you think squats and running are a waste of time.”</p><p>“Maybe not for athletes,” Keith corrects. “But –”</p><p>“For Storm Chasers?” Lance finishes for him. When he meets Keith's gaze again, his eyes are bright as if they're lit from the inside.</p><p>It's something else.</p><p>“Storm Chasers should train with magic,” Keith states simply.</p><p>“Is that what you always do then? Train with magic?”</p><p>“Not normally like that,” Keith clarifies. “I don't usually have another person with me.”</p><p>Lance's smile fades as he pushes himself up so he's sitting upright, facing Keith. “How do you normally train then?”</p><p>Keith shrugs. “I usually push the Storms to see what they can do.”</p><p>“Alone.”</p><p>“Yes,” Keith confirms, not sure why this is the point that Lance is stuck on. “Alone.”</p><p>Lance frowns at him, but doesn't say anything.</p><p>“What?” Keith asks, wondering how many times he has to ask this today in order to understand the enigma that is Lance.</p><p>Lance shakes his head. “Nothing really.” It is something, of that Keith is sure. But it's apparently not something that Lance feels like saying, so instead he stays quiet as the other man thinks. Finally, Lance says. “You should train with me.”</p><p>“I thought we just did,” Keith deadpans.</p><p>“Ha-ha,” Lance says, not sounding all that amused. “You know what I mean.”</p><p>“Not really,” Keith admits.</p><p>Lance sighs. “You should train with me all the time,” he says. “So you don't have to do it alone.”</p><p>Keith's stomach does an uncomfortable flip that reaches all the way up to his chest. “I train a lot,” he argues.</p><p>“Then I'll train a lot too.”</p><p>“You don't have to.”</p><p>“It'll make me better.”</p><p>“You'll get bored.”</p><p>“Keith,” Lance says, and Keith realizes it's the first time he's ever heard the other man say his name out loud. “Stop trying to get rid of me.”</p><p>“I'm not trying to get rid of you,” Keith protests weakly.</p><p>Lance breaks into a smile. “Good. Then that means you have to train with me.”</p><p>Keith has definitely lost this argument, and yet it doesn't feel so much like a loss.</p><p>Eventually, Lance stands up, stretching his arms out over his head. “Alright, well I am already sore and probably smell terrible. Let's head out?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Keith agrees, pushing himself to his feet. Fighting Lance is different than the way he normally trains, so even though he hadn't done what he'd planned, he's still sure he's gotten something out of it. He might even be a little sore tomorrow.</p><p>Lance gets up with an “Oomph,” then chuckles. “Damn, I'm gonna be <em>really </em>sore tomorrow.”</p><p>Keith almost laughs. “I just hope there aren't any Storms today.”</p><p>“You mean tonight?” Lance points out. He gestures to the sky where the sun is already starting to dip lower in the horizon. It's later than Keith had expected. It's not that he doesn't train deep into the hours of the night, but he's not usually this unaware of how much time had passed. “I hope not.”</p><p>“Knowing your luck there will be,” Keith pokes.</p><p>“My luck? Last I remember, you're the one who almost got frozen because you misread a very obvious misdirection.”</p><p>“Oh?” Keith asks, a smile playing at his lips. “You sure I wasn't pretending so you'd fall for <em>my</em> misdirection?” A misdirection which had landed Lance flat on his ass, no less.</p><p>“Shut up!” Lance shoves his shoulder. Keith opens his mouth to apologize, but Lance is still grinning from ear to ear. Not upset then.</p><p>So Keith pushes a little further. “I'm just surprised you remembered something, that's all.”</p><p>“That's rich, coming from the guy who doesn't even remember me from school.”</p><p>“I don't remember anyone from school.”</p><p>“I'm wounded,” Lance declares. When Keith looks over, he's covering his chest dramatically with his hand, as if he were literally wounded.</p><p>“I already told you that,” Keith reminds him, confused.</p><p>“I'm offended that you'd group me together with everyone else,” Lance clarifies.</p><p>“Even Hunk?” Keith asks.</p><p>“<em>Especially</em> Hunk.”</p><p>Keith laughs.</p><p>The sound takes him aback so much that he stops suddenly. Lance, who had started laughing along with him, doesn't appear to have noticed. He keeps laughing, as if Keith hadn't done anything strange. But it is strange: Keith hasn't laughed at anything for a long time except Shiro.</p><p>He hasn't had a friend aside from Shiro.</p><p>That must be why he feels so strange around Lance. He barely knows the guy, but already he feels like they could be friends. Good friends, if he doesn't let himself get in the way.</p><p>“I'm surprised I don't remember you,” Keith admits.</p><p>Lance's laugh dies slowly. When Keith meets Lance's eyes again, that same infuriatingly unreadable expression is present on the other man's face. He tries to commit it to memory, as if he could look it up somehow and demand answers.</p><p>This time, Lance is quiet too long, and Keith is forced to speak first. “What?” Keith asks when Lance doesn't break the silence around them. “Do I have something on my face?” Had he said something weird?</p><p>Lance shakes his head, eyes refocusing as if he'd vanished into his mind somewhere. “Nothing,” he says lightly. Too lightly, but Keith doesn't push. “We were going to leave before it got dark, right?”</p><p>Keith hadn't even noticed that they'd stopped walking. “Right,” he agrees. “We should hurry.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. What Lies Within</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Keith is helpless. Also a training montage.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Yoooo guess who's back. You thought I was dead, didn't you? Yeah, same. <br/>Anyway this has been edited and betaed and all that as usual. I hope you enjoy!<br/>&lt;3 Rin</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They aren’t pushing dark when they finish, not really; they’re far enough from the rest of civilization that there aren’t any houses or streetlights. It makes the place look a lot darker than the rest of the area. At this point, Keith is more worried about missing the bus than anything else. He’d used up almost all his magic for the day during their sparring session, which means if he misses it he’ll be stuck walking all the way back to Shiro’s apartment if he times it wrong.</p><p>Unlike him, though, Lance actually owns a car. He brings it up the moment they leave the field. “Where’d you park?” he asks, looking around.</p><p>“I took the bus,” Keith admits. He’s not ashamed for doing it, but he is irritated that he’s going to have to walk all the way back.</p><p>“Oh,” Lance replies. “That’s why you were late.”</p><p>“I guess.” It isn’t, but Keith lets that slide. Sometimes having excuses like that come in handy.</p><p>“Wanna ride?” Lance offers. “I’m right here.” He gestures to the car they’re both walking towards. It’s a small blue Honda Fit pulled just off the shoulder of the road. Keith hadn’t even noticed it before.</p><p>“Is that okay?” Keith asks, even though Lance had just offered it.</p><p>“Course,” Lance replies easily. “Why not?”</p><p>Keith shrugs.</p><p>“I wouldn’t have suggested it if I didn’t mean it,” Lance points out as they reach his car. He leans against the side, using the car as support while he pulls off his shoe. Keith is about to ask him what the hell he’s doing, when a key falls out of Lance’s shoe into his hand. “I know it’s gross,” Lance says before Keith can even open his mouth. “But there’s not really a better way to make sure I don’t lose it.”</p><p>“<em>Have </em>you lost it?” Keith asks curiously. He doesn’t have a car, but he always knows where the keys to his bike are.</p><p>“Once,” Lance admits. “Back when I chased Blizzard. Not my proudest moment.”</p><p>The fact that Lance had managed to catch Blizzard in the first place is impressive in and of itself, but Keith doesn’t point that out. He’s not sure how to without sounding awkward. Instead, he walks around the back of the small car and waits as Lance gets in and manually unlocks the passenger door from the inside.</p><p>The car isn’t clean by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s not filled with food and that’s good enough for Keith. Lance has to shove jackets and other pieces of clothing into the backseat before Keith can even see where he’s supposed to sit. When he gets in, he spots three air fresheners hanging off the rear-view mirror; all of them say “ocean” but the brands are clearly different. He inhales – hopefully not too obviously – but if they worked before, they don’t now. All Keith can smell is laundry detergent and something else. Something he can’t put his finger on.</p><p>Maybe it is the ocean.</p><p>“I know I’ve been to your place before,” Lance says as he mounts his phone up on the dash, “but I don’t know how to get there from here.”</p><p>“It’s not my place,” Keith corrects automatically. He doesn’t have a place of his own – unless he counts the storage unit that holds his bike – but he feels the need to make it clear to Lance that the apartment doesn’t belong to him. “It’s Shiro’s.”</p><p>“Ok-kay...” Lance says slowly, opening the maps app on his phone. It’s clearly a newer version than the one Keith has on his, but then again he’s not sure his phone can even be considered “smart” at this point. “Where am I going then?”</p><p>“Oh,” Keith says, realizing the confusion. “Same place. It’s just not mine.”</p><p>“You’re staying with Shiro?” Lance asks. </p><p>Keith nods. </p><p>“But you don’t live with him?”</p><p>Keith nods again.</p><p>Lance frowns, but the light isn’t strong enough for Keith to get a good read on his face. Is it irritation or confusion? He’s not sure. “Right,” he says. “Point still stands: how do I get there?”</p><p>“Can I?” Keith gestures to the phone.</p><p>Lance leans back, away from the phone so Keith can have full access. “Sure. Go for it.”</p><p>Keith plugs Shiro’s address into the phone and lets the map figure it out from there. In all honesty, he doesn’t know the best way to get from here to there. Usually, Keith just takes the bus, which he’s sure isn’t the fastest route. The map probably knows more about it than he does.</p><p>When Keith releases the phone, Lance leans in again, giving Keith another whiff of the unknown smell. Lance flips through three different choices before choosing a route, muttering to himself, “I don’t care what it says, that road always has fifty cops this time of night.” Keith doesn’t argue.</p><p>When Lance starts up his car, the radio blares for a moment before Lance manages to turn it down. Keith knows he shouldn’t be surprised, but he’s a little disappointed that Lance’s radio is tuned into a top 40 station.</p><p>He shouldn’t be surprised.</p><p>Keith starts to wonder as Lance drives him back, flipping between radio stations at the speed of light, if maybe he <em>does</em> remember Lance in a way. Even if he doesn’t consciously have memories of Lance, the things Lance does – the way he acts – feel familiar to Keith in a way he doesn’t understand and also can’t explain. Even when Lance had been with him and Shiro, all memories lost, and Keith hadn’t know that they’d been in the Garrison together, there’d been something. Lance had felt somehow...familiar.</p><p>Or maybe he’s searching for something that isn’t there.</p><p>Like this, in the car with Lance flipping stations and changing lanes almost as frequently, the silence isn’t as awkward as it had been before. Keith thinks that maybe this time it’s because Lance is concentrating on driving rather than because neither of them have any idea what to say to each other. Though, Keith figures, they hadn’t talked a ton while training either and that hadn’t been awkward.</p><p>Maybe that’s the reason; they need something to concentrate on other than the fact that Keith doesn’t know what to say to people who aren’t Shiro.</p><p>He watches Lance as he drives. In other situations, Lance gives off the impression of being lighthearted and carefree, but Keith knows that isn’t the case. Not judging by the way Lance fights. Not judging by the number of Storms Lance has.</p><p>He’d been calculated in the attacks he’d thrown at Keith, not reacting on instinct the way Keith often does. Did, even in that sparring session. Lance had moved in ways that Keith hadn’t understood, at least not immediately. Then he’d found himself struggling to hold off some attack Lance had aimed at his way.</p><p>No. No matter how carefree Lance tries to appear, there’s more to him than that. Keith can already see that.</p><p>Eventually, Lance notices the fact that Keith’s staring at him. He glances over, meeting Keith’s eyes for a second before turning his attention back to the road. “What?”</p><p>“Nothing,” Keith responds. “You’re interesting is all.”</p><p>Lance slams too hard on the breaks as they reach the next light, and the red from it casts a glow on his cheeks. Keith likes it. “Interesting how?” Lance asks.</p><p>“I wouldn’t have expected you to fight like that,” Keith admits.</p><p>“Fight like what?” Lance asks too casually, eyes still facing front.</p><p>Calculated isn’t the right word for it, Keith realizes as the word is ready to leave his lips. He’s come across calculated Storm Chasers before, but they hadn’t been able to take him off guard the way Lance had. They hadn’t been as surprising.</p><p>Keith doesn’t have good enough words for it, so he settles on, “I haven’t fought anyone who can take me off guard like that. Not in a long time.”</p><p>Lance does look at him at that. “I took you off guard?” He sounds surprised.</p><p>“Yeah. Your style it’s... different. Good different,” he clarifies when the shadow of a frown threatens to take over Lance’s face. The signal changes to green, glowing green on Lance’s skin this time. There’s still a slight pink somewhere below it.</p><p>That, or the light’s playing tricks on Keith’s eyes.</p><p>Lance doesn’t react.</p><p>“The light’s green,” Keith points out. Almost immediately, the car behind them honks.</p><p>Lance startles, looking forward again before taking off faster than he had at the previous lights. “Sorry,” he apologizes for some reason. “Didn’t notice.”</p><p>“We trained for a while,” Keith concedes.</p><p>“I’m probably tired.” Almost on cue, Lance’s stomach growls. “And hungry.”</p><p>Keith smirks at the sound. “Apparently.”</p><p>“Shut up,” Lance shoots back, but this time Keith can tell that he doesn’t mean it. He’s already learning.</p><p>They drive the rest of the way to Shiro’s apartment in silence. Keith wants to invite Lance upstairs for dinner, wants to see if Shiro can coax more information out of him than Keith himself is capable of. But before he can come up with an excuse, Lance pulls to a stop at the curb. The universal sign of <em>I’m going home after this</em>. “It was fun,” he says.</p><p>“Oh,” Keith replies, recognizing this for the dismissal it is. “Yeah.”</p><p>“We should do it again sometime.”</p><p>“We should.” But Keith knows Lance doesn’t mean it. He’s seen enough movies – at Shiro’s insistence – to know that <em>we should do it again sometime </em>means they won’t do it again at all.</p><p>“I mean what I said before,” Lance says suddenly. When Keith looks at him in confusion, he can see that Lance’s expression is dead serious. “Every time you train, I mean.”</p><p>“I train a lot,” Keith reminds him.</p><p>“Yeah,” Lance says. “You said that before.”</p><p>“You might be busy,” Keith says, trying to come up with some reason why Lance won’t be able to join him. Because Lance won’t.</p><p>But Lance is nothing if not surprising. “And if I’m busy, I’ll say no that day,” he says. “But don’t just go running off because you think I don’t want to join.”</p><p>Keith huffs. “I’m used to training alone.”</p><p>“I know.” Lance says it more seriously than Keith would’ve expected. “But now you don’t have to.” He smiles at Keith, and Keith can’t help it.</p><p>He smiles back.</p><p>“Fine,” he agrees. “I’ll text you.”</p><p>“Yes,” Lance says. “You will.”</p><p>Keith opens the door before he’s tempted to keep the conversation going any longer. “Thanks for the ride,” he says as he gets out. Shiro had at least taught him some basic manners.</p><p>“Anytime,” comes Lance’s reply. He probably even means it.</p><p>Keith slams the door harder than intended and winces as he heads toward the building. He has to almost physically fight against himself to keep from standing there and watching the Fit drive off. He does, however, take the stairs up one floor instead of riding the elevator all the way up to Shiro’s apartment. There’s a hallway with windows that face directly out to the main road. They give Keith a good view of the blue car as it drives away.</p><p>It occurs to Keith as he heads back to the elevator that he actually doesn’t know that much about Lance. He knows Lance had gone to the Garrison with him. He knows that Lance has a best friend named Hunk. And he knows that Lance is a Storm Chaser who could give Keith a run for his money if he wanted to.</p><p>If Hurricane hadn’t disappeared before, which of them would’ve ended up with the power? He doesn’t know of a single God who gives their power to more than one person per Storm. He doesn’t even know if it’s possible. That’s why Chasers rarely run together; because in the end, only one of them can get the power, and Chasers don’t like to give up their magic for anyone.</p><p>And with Lance? Keith’s not sure he’d be the one to get it.</p><p>---</p><p>He talks to Lance more after that first time. Or, more accurately, Lance talks to him more. The other Chaser messages him later that first night when Keith’s eating dinner, and Keith has to pretend that he hadn’t been about to throw his food across the table in his haste to get his phone. Shiro gives him a strange look, but he doesn’t ask any questions.</p><p>So Keith doesn’t say anything.</p><p>They talk about nothing, him and Lance. Keith never really knows what to say, but he doesn’t need to in order to keep Lance talking. Lance is clearly the talkative type; he brings up things that Keith has never heard about before and rambles about them like they’re the most important thing in the world. Keith ends up staying up too late a couple nights later when Lance sends him a near constant stream of messages describing some game Hunk’s playing in detail. Keith has no idea what it’s about, and he’s not sure Lance does either judging by the messages.</p><p>From what he can tell, Lance and Hunk live together. Not like how Keith stays with Shiro sometimes. They’re actual roommates. He thinks that’s all there is to their relationship.</p><p>Or, at least, he hopes so.</p><p>When Keith finally is able to fall asleep, it’s because Lance’s messages come further and further apart until Keith gives up on them coming in at all. But by the time that happens, it’s already past two in the morning, so he assumes that means Lance had gone to bed. The way Keith should’ve already.</p><p>It sparks something in his chest, this new friendship with Lance. He’d thought before that he was just unfriendly – that no one hung out with him because he was too hard to get along with. But talking to Lance is easy, and the occasional conversations he has with Hunk through Lance’s phone aren’t difficult either. It makes Keith excited to train, excited to get up in the morning.</p><p>For the first time, he has something to look forward to other than Chase Hurricane.</p><p>Training with Lance that first time had been fun. There’s no other word for it. Keith had never had the chance to actually spar with a Chaser aside from Shiro, especially after he’d left the Garrison. He’d missed it. Or maybe rather than missing it, Keith’s finally learning the value of training with others. That’s what Shiro would say at least.</p><p>There’s a reason that Chasing turned into a sport. Keith had never understood it before, the concept of Chasers fighting each other in arenas the way boxers fight in rings. Going after Storms might’ve been the point of becoming a Chaser initially, but he’s starting to understand the rush that comes along with pitting his skills against another person.</p><p>Especially Lance.</p><p>Keith invites Lance for a second round of sparring the day after the late night gaming texts. Technically, Keith had considered inviting him along before then, but even though Lance had said that he’d be interested in training with him every time he trained, he’d thought it’d be too soon. So instead he asks if Lance wants to join him later, last second enough for Lance to turn him down.</p><p>But Lance agrees instead.</p><p>He doesn’t stop messaging Keith after that either. Not after another sparring session that leaves them both dirty and bruised from the attacks – dirty tricks, according to Lance – which they’d thrown at each other.</p><p>Keith gets a stream of Lance’s consciousness throughout the days that he thinks might be copy-pasted from messages he sends other people, but honestly Keith doesn’t mind. It means he doesn’t have to think of clever responses and instead can learn about Lance. Slowly but surely he is learning.</p><p>Lance has a part-time job as a barista, something he complains about almost nonstop during the day. At first Keith wonders why the hell Lance hasn’t quit yet, but he thinks maybe Lance secretly likes it, especially with how often he sends latte art when he’s on break.</p><p>Whether that’s what Lance wants to do with his life, though, Keith doesn’t ask. He knows too well the stress and fear that comes with other people questioning his choices, and he’s not going to put that on Lance. Even if he is curious – and he is, surprising himself – it would come across wrong. If Lance hated his life, he wouldn’t be living it the way he is.</p><p>Unlike Keith, Lance also has other friends he hangs out with. Where Keith has Shiro and basically no one else – aside from Lance himself now – Lance has tons of other friends and family he spends his time with. Sometimes he calls them things like “my sister” or “my friend” and Keith doesn’t push him for names. Other times he refers to people like “Veronica” and “Pidge” as if Keith should know who they are already. He’s not even sure if they’re the same people each time.</p><p>He doesn’t ask that either.</p><p>Through the days – and nights – talking to Lance, Keith learns that he’s still struggling with some of the after-effects of his concussion. Lance has forgotten things around the Storm, which he and Keith had already known, but he’d also forgotten other things. Like why he’d been chasing a Storm as powerful as Hurricane in the first place.</p><p>Keith pressures him after their second sparring session to go see the doctor, and Lance actually relents. [Tell Shiro thanks!]  Lance reports as soon as he gets out of the doctor. It’s quite possibly the longest hour of Keith’s life. [Oh and also that I’m fine.] Shiro would be proud of him for being that responsible, but Keith doesn’t tell him.</p><p>He doesn’t tell him anything at all.</p><p>He’s starting to get used to the way his stomach swooshes every time he so much as thinks about Lance. But it still doesn’t do anything to dull the excitement he feels when he approaches the field for the third training session with Lance. Lance is already there, waiting him for him in the exact same spot he has the other two times they’d sparred here. It’s turning into a habit.</p><p>“You know,” Lance says as the two of them duck under the fence, “I could pick you up next time. That way you don’t have to take the bus and <em>I </em>don’t have to wait.”</p><p>“You sure?” Keith asks.</p><p>“Sure,” Lance answers easily. Everything comes easily to him. “Why not?” It’s the same answer he gives the last two times he’d offered a ride home after their sessions.</p><p>Keith smiles. He’s been doing that more lately; he’s going to have to be careful or Shiro will never let him hear the end of it. “Sounds good,” Keith agrees. The agreement comes to him easily; maybe Lance is starting to rub off on him. “Are you ready this time?” he goads. “Or am I going to take you off guard again?”</p><p>Lance shoots an icicle directly at Keith’s face.</p><p>---</p><p>He can’t hide it from Shiro for long, no matter how he tries. It only takes a few more sparring sessions with Lance that go late into the evening for Shiro to notice. After all, Keith had always been home whenever Shiro had gotten back before.</p><p>“I’m glad to see you smiling,” he remarks one night when Keith comes back, exhausted. They have yet to come up with a scoring system, but Lance had insisted that he’d won this time.</p><p>Keith had argued just for the sake of getting a rise out of him,</p><p>“Yeah,” Keith agrees thoughtlessly, headed with a singular intention towards the bathroom. “It was fun.”</p><p>“Another session training with Lance?” Shiro asks casually. Too casually.</p><p>“Ye – wait.” Keith catches himself, stopping short. “How’d you know?”</p><p>Shiro shrugs. “You’re not subtle you know.”</p><p>The only thing that stops him from arguing is the fact that, well, Shiro’s right. Keith had never used to check his phone – Shiro would yell at him to keep it charged. Now, though, Keith has it on him constantly. He checks it when they’re eating, which is obvious even though he’d finally figured out how to turn his phone onto silent. He’s too tired from the session to hide anything, so he doesn’t bother. “You’re right,” Keith says. “He’s not that bad.”</p><p>“His memory back then?” Shiro asks, taking the conversation in a different direction than Keith had expected. And feared.</p><p>He shrugs, shoulder protesting the movement. He’s definitely going to be sore in the morning. It’s a good thing he doesn’t have any training planned for the next day, with or without Lance. He could use a day off. “Not all of it. Sounds like he might never get back what he’d lost about the Storm.”</p><p>Shiro frowns, a sharper concern covering his face than Keith had expected. “What?” Keith asks when he doesn’t immediately say anything.</p><p>“What about his head?”</p><p>“I just said -”</p><p>“Not his memories,” Shiro clarifies. “His concussion.”</p><p>To Keith, those two things may as well be the same. “I dunno,” he replies. “He said it still hurts sometimes but otherwise it’s fine.”</p><p>“Are you sure you should be training with him?” Shiro asks, using a tone of voice reminiscent of what he’d used back in the Garrison.</p><p>Oh. Right. Head injuries.</p><p>Of course, Keith <em>had</em> thought about that the first time they’d trained together. But he’d honestly forgotten about it after that. Lance had seemed fine – aside from the memory issues – and Keith had been more than content to follow his lead and not worry about it. But the way Shiro asks the question, like an accusation, brings out the defensive side of Keith.</p><p>“He’s fine,” Keith tells him. “He’d say something if he wasn’t.”</p><p>“Would he?” Shiro presses. “How do you know?”</p><p>“Because...” Keith trails off. <em>Because I trust him</em> had been what he’d planned to say, but the words don’t make it past his lips. Because Shiro is actually right in what he’s implying: Keith wouldn’t know.</p><p>He’s been spending his time getting to know Lance, but in reality all he knows is what Lance <em>tells</em> him. And if Keith knows anything from experience, it’s that people don’t always tell you everything that they think and feel. Lance could be lying. Hell, if Keith were in his shoes he <em>knows</em> he’d lie about it.</p><p>But Lance... he doesn’t seem like the type of person to lie. Not a true lie. Something like this though? Headaches or a weakness which would get in the way of him training with Keith, a person Lance has admitted to knowing as the ’Star of the Garrison?’</p><p>He doesn’t know.</p><p>“I’ll ask him tomorrow,” Keith concedes grumpily. Shiro’s right, even if he doesn’t want to admit it.</p><p>As a complete betrayal, Keith’s phone buzzes. “No,” Shiro argues, voice fully in command mode. “You’ll ask him now.”</p><p>Keith doesn’t bother pretending that it’s not Lance messaging him. Sure, he has Hunk’s number, but aside from the two of them, Shiro’s the only one he talks to. And besides, Shiro knows him well enough to know that it’s Lance.</p><p>Even if Keith doesn’t tell him.</p><p>[Home safe] the message says. There’s an x-ed out rectangle Keith instinctively knows is a thumbs up emoji, even if he can’t see it.</p><p>He looks up at Shiro, as if there’s some way out, but the older man nods to Keith’s phone meaningfully. [hows your head?] Keith asks.</p><p>Luckily enough for him, he doesn’t have to wait around with Shiro hovering over him like a vulture. Lance’s response times have always been inhumanly fast; it makes Keith wonders how the hell he types. Or if he even does. [Uh fine?] [Why?] The two messages come in rapid fire, as usual.</p><p>“He’s fine,” Keith relays to Shiro. “Can I go now?”</p><p>“Do you believe him?” Shiro presses.</p><p>Keith sighs. [You sure?] he sends back. This time, he turns the screen towards Shiro in order to prove that he’s at least trying. </p><p>[Is this about the volcanado?] Lance asks. It’s the stupid name he’s given Keith’s attack when he puts fire and tornadoes together. He’s done it more than once now, which had prompted Lance to give it that stupid name. [You know you didn’t actually blind me right?]</p><p>[i know]</p><p>[Then why the Spanish Inquisition?]</p><p>[Shiro’s worried]</p><p>[AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW] The final message is accompanied with a number of x-ed out rectangles again.</p><p>Keith rolls his eyes. “He’s fine,” he assures Shiro, opting not to show him the screen this time. “Trust me.” </p><p>Shiro gives him one last searching look before nodding, satisfied. “Dinner in ten,” he says, turning to walk away. And just like that, the subject is dropped, leaving Keith free to go.</p><p>[Shut up] he sends back to Lance as he makes his way to the bathroom.</p><p>All he gets in response is a string of emojis he can’t read.</p><p>---</p><p>Hunk joins them for the first time a few weeks later. Keith’s thrown off by it initially; from what he knows about the big guy, he isn’t much into Chasing himself. He’s more of a support to Lance. In fact, Keith hadn’t thought the guy had any Storms at all.</p><p>But he doesn’t want to battle, Hunk informs him when Keith climbs into the backseat of the blue Fit; he wants to observe. It makes more sense, but it still sets Keith on edge. He doesn’t hate Hunk; on the contrary the guy is nice and doesn’t make Keith feel like he’s some kind of alien. They might become something like friends if Keith doesn’t get in his own way. But the question of what Hunk means to Lance – if there’s something more than friendship – tugs at Keith’s brain during the drive over. Hunk is Lance’s friend – his best friend – and he’d been the trigger which had let Lance get his memories back.</p><p>But this is supposed to be <em>his</em> time with Lance.</p><p>His presence alone is unsettling as Keith and Lance get into the field and start their training session. He’s less focused than he should be, and he keeps throwing weaker magic at Lance, wondering if he’s worried like Shiro, wonders if maybe he sees something when he’s home with Lance that makes him worry.</p><p>The real reason Lance brings Hunk is clear within a few minutes of their bout. “Foul!” Lance shouts. Sometimes they do yell at each other when they spar, but this is more than the typical jab. And it’s <em>louder</em>. The fire Keith had been lacing together with the bits of rock around him disappear, and the rocks thud to the ground beside him.</p><p>“What?” he’s distracted enough that he gets blindsided by a rush of water from Lance. It hits him square on the side of his head, throwing him off balance. Keith trips over one of the larger rocks he’d summoned earlier and falls to the ground before he can react.</p><p>“Foul’s on you, Lance!” Hunk shouts back from a safe distance away.</p><p>“What? No fair!” Lance yells.</p><p>“You can’t fire at Keith when he’s talking to the ref,” Hunk explains, still shouting over the distance.</p><p>“I wasn’t firing,” Lance argues. “That was water.”</p><p>“Point deducted for bad puns,” Hunk yells.</p><p>“What?!”</p><p>“No arguments or I’ll deduct more!”</p><p>Lance lets out a grunt, like he’d half-formed an argument back but had thought better of it.</p><p>Keith shakes his head as he sits up. “Wait...” he says slowly. “What’s happening?”</p><p>Lance looks down at him, offering a hand up. “Hunk is refereeing.”</p><p>Keith blinks.</p><p>“He asked me to!” Hunk shouts from where he’s standing across the field.</p><p>“I did not!” Lance yells back. Keith shakes himself and takes the offered hand, letting Lance haul him to his feet. “Don’t believe him,” Lance says quieter.</p><p>“Okay fine,” Hunk’s voice gets closer, and Keith looks over to see him approaching. “What he really said was that he’s sure you’re cheating somehow.”</p><p>“I did no-”</p><p>“So I decided to see for myself,” Hunk finishes, talking smoothly over Lance. He’s reached them at this point, but he takes a quick look around the field, which hadn’t been perfect before their session today – or before Keith’s first session here ever – but is certainly more damaged than before. His gaze hovers a moment over where Keith’s hand is still joined with Lance’s, and Keith drops it hastily. He tries to cover up the movement by wiping off his pants, ignoring the fact that the entire left side of his shirt is soaked.</p><p>“I don’t cheat,” Keith says. “There aren’t any rules.”</p><p>“Yes,” Hunk agrees. “But maybe there should be.”</p><p>“Like what?” Keith can’t help the affront that comes through in his voice. Hunk doesn’t know anything about this. He might know Lance and be friends with Lance, but he’s never been to their sparring sessions before today. What makes him think he can come in and set up rules?</p><p>“Well,” Hunk says, “Like...” And then he’s off, launching into a list of rules he’d clearly thought about before even showing up today. No attacking when the other party isn’t prepared for it. No double attacks. No stacking powers. No flying.</p><p>Immediately, Keith bristles. “That cuts out everything.”</p><p>Hunk shrugs. “Not my fault. I didn’t make them up.”</p><p>“But you just -”</p><p>Keith’s argument is cut off by Lance. “Bogus,” he says, appearing directly next to Keith. “No power stacking is dumb. It doesn’t make any sense.”</p><p>“Right,” Keith agrees. “And only attacking when the other person is ready isn’t how it works in the real world. That would defeat the entire purpose of training.”</p><p>“Besides I like double attacks,” Lance adds.</p><p>“And flying.”</p><p>“And... yeah,” Lance agrees. “What Keith said.”</p><p>“You can’t fly,” Hunk says.</p><p>That takes Keith for a loop. He rounds on Lance, ignoring the earlier argument they’d been having with Hunk. “Don’t you have Tornado?” he asks.</p><p>“Yes,” Lance replies. He shoots a glare at Hunk before looking back at Keith and crossing his arms over his chest. “So?”</p><p>“And Cyclone?” Keith presses. He swears he’s seen Lance use both of them in battle.</p><p>“Having those powers doesn’t mean I can fly.” Lance is noticeably pouting.</p><p>“Yes it does,” Keith responds immediately. It explains so much; whenever Keith’s taken to the sky to get the advantage of height, Lance always stays on the ground. He’d thought Lance had been doing that to conserve his strength, or maybe as some kind of tactical advantage he’d learned in the Garrison after Keith had left, but maybe the answer is simpler than that. Maybe Lance doesn’t know how to fly.</p><p>He can’t imagine not flying. Tornado had been his second power, and it had changed everything for him. Being able to push himself up into the heart of the Storms had completely changed the way he’d approached Chasing.</p><p>“Not all of us are Keith Kogane,” Lance retorts.</p><p>“That’s...” Keith sighs. This is one of those times where Lance gets him confused with that image of him the professors at the Garrison had pushed so hard. It happens sometimes, and he can always tell, because Lance starts calling him ‘Keith Kogane’ or even ‘Kogane’ instead of just Keith. “It has nothing to do with me. Anyone can use Tornado to fly if they wanted to.”</p><p>Lance doesn’t respond to that, and he also isn’t meeting his eyes, so Keith steps forward. “I can teach you if you want.”</p><p>Lance blinks at him, meeting his gaze again. For some reason, his eyes dart to Hunk – who Keith had forgotten was even there – before looking back at him. “You would?”</p><p>“You guys just pretend I’m not here,” Hunk says from somewhere behind Keith. </p><p>Keith ignores him. “Yeah,” he says, mimicking what Lance always says whenever he offers Keith a ride. “Why not?”</p><p>“I dunno,” Lance admits. “I thought it was something you couldn’t learn.”</p><p>“Then how do you think I do it?”</p><p>“Talent?”</p><p>Keith shakes his head. “Talent has nothing to do with flying. It’s something I had to practice a lot to get down. You should’ve seen me the first time I tried.”</p><p>“I doubt it was that bad,” Lance argues.</p><p>“I flew into a building and almost broke my nose.”</p><p>Lance snorts, making a flush climb up the back of Keith’s neck. It had been far from his proudest moment, but he’d brought it up with the intention of making Lance feel better.</p><p>At least it seems to have worked.</p><p>“Anyway,” Keith continues, bring the conversation back to the topic. “That’s not important. You want to learn, right? I can teach you.”</p><p>“I’m not sure I want you teaching me now,” Lance tells him with a smirk. “I mean, you just admitted that you brained yourself the first time.”</p><p>“Almost brained myself.”</p><p>“Sure, sure.”</p><p>“Shut up,” Keith replies, but there’s no malice behind his words. “Besides, there aren’t any buildings around here.”</p><p>“Good thing,” Lance remarks. “Or else you’d be the one going to the hospital for a concussion.”</p><p>Keith crosses his arms over his chest and tries to channel his inner Shiro. “Do you want to learn or do you want to talk?”</p><p>“Whatever you say, Professor Keith.”</p><p>“That’s Professor Kogane to you,” Keith shoots back without thinking. Immediately he regrets it; he doesn’t want Lance thinking about him in relation to the Garrison again.</p><p>But Lance doesn’t seem bothered. “Okay, Professor <em>Kogane</em>. Teach me to fly then.”</p><p>“Right,” Keith says, clearing his throat from the sudden lump which had just appeared. His cheeks feel a little hot, but he’s choosing to ignore that. “You still have plenty of Tornado left, right?” he checks. He hadn’t noticed Lance using it before their match had been interrupted, but he isn’t sure.</p><p>“Yeah. Haven’t used it today.”</p><p>Keith nods. “Good. What you want to do then,” he explains. “Is push at least half of it into your feet. Don’t let it out yet, just guide it down there. You want to focus on your feet.” He pauses for a second while Lance nods. “Then put the rest of it into your hands. They stabilize you when you’re learning.”</p><p>“Like Ironman,” Lance say. Keith vaguely knows who Ironman is – it’s impossible to avoid it completely – but he doesn’t have enough context to say for sure if Lance actually understands him. He chooses to assume so for now.</p><p>“Sure.”</p><p>“You haven’t seen Avengers, have you?” Lance asks.</p><p>“Concentrate, Lance,” Keith reminds him.</p><p>To his surprise, Lance actually listens. He doesn’t shoot back a response the way Keith had half expected him to. Instead he quiets down, a slight furrow appearing between his brows. “When you feel it,” Keith continues in a voice barely above a whisper, not wanting to break Lance’s concentration, “try to let it out a little at a time. Just enough to make you float.”</p><p>Lance stands completely still, arms frozen in place at his side for so long that Keith wonders if he’s trying anymore. He opens his mouth to ask, but before he can say anything, there’s a soft hiss of wind, and Lance floats gently up into the air.</p><p>He lifts up several feet, far enough that Keith has to step back in order to get a good look at him. It’s a stark difference to the first time he’d tried to fly, where he’d flipped over himself a dozen times before he’d even thought to use his hands. For all the talk about Keith having talent, Lance has him beat in that regard.</p><p>The wind whips around Lance, moving his clothes with a breeze that doesn’t reach the ground where Keith’s standing. His shirt raises up just enough that Keith catches sight of his stomach. He wonders if Lance knows to keep his abs engaged so he doesn’t fly off course. Judging by how steady he’s holding, he either knows or is flexing them on instinct.</p><p>He’s sturdy too, floating almost directly above where he’d lifted off without wavering. Lance doesn’t tilt to one side or career out of control. No. He’s completely still, as if he’s been doing this for years.</p><p>For a moment, Keith wonders if this is all an elaborate hoax. If Lance and Hunk are hustling him. Maybe Lance had actually been flying for years.</p><p>That’s proven wrong mere moments later as Lance wavers. He’s strong and he has good instincts, but he’s not experienced. If he were, he wouldn’t already be wobbling. Keith knows that feeling. Lance stays steady though, keeping himself exactly in position. Too late, Keith realizes that Lance intends to stay exactly where and how he is until Tornado runs out. “Lance – “ he starts, but at that moment, Tornado fades.</p><p>Keith rushes forward as Lance falls, calling on Landslide. The ground rises towards Lance in a muddy mess, catching him before he can slam into the hard ground. Landslide sinks down, becoming a pool of mud, and Lance steps out.</p><p>Or, he tries.</p><p>He stumbles, but Keith’s there to catch him. He holds him steady, hands gripping around Lance’s hips as if he had done more than just trip. Even so, he can’t help the worry which suddenly forced itself into his head. Lance had just recovered from a head injury. He can’t afford another one, even if he’s fine right now.</p><p>He’s never been this close to Lance before. Even when they’ve battled, there’s been a physical separation between the two of them as they launch magic at each other. He can feel Lance’s chest rising and falling against his own, feels the heartbeat underneath. The sensation freezes him in place as he holds Lance in an awkward hug, noticing a whole host of things about the other Chaser which he’d never noticed before. Like... Lance has eyelashes.</p><p>Of course he does. Everyone has eyelashes. But Lance’s are different somehow. They’re noticeable in a way even Shiro can’t achieve without help. And his eyes aren’t a pure blue either. With the way they’re standing, the light reflects into Lance’s eyes showing off specs of green inside, dotting Lance’s irises like hidden stars. He has stars across his nose too, though these are in the form of freckles. They’re disguised by his dark skin normally, but this close they just barely stand out.</p><p>It isn’t until Keith’s eyes drop to Lance’s lips that he realizes the heartbeat thudding against his chest might actually be his own. It’s beating far harder than it has any right to from having done nothing but catch someone. And now that his eyes are there, Keith can’t look away. They’re just a pair of lips; nothing about them should be any different than any other pair of lips Keith’s seen in his life, and yet... they are. There’s a divot slightly underneath the right side of Lance’s lower lip, as if he chews there frequently enough to leave a mark.</p><p>And then Lance’s tongue darts out, and Keith’s mind blanks entirely.</p><p>“Uh,” Lance breathes after some unknown length of time while Keith’s been staring at him silently. It may have been seconds, or it may have been hours. Hell, they might’ve been standing there for days for all Keith knows. “Thanks for catching me,” Lance says quietly.</p><p>The words force Ketih back to reality, where he realizes his hands are still gripping Lance’s hips too tightly. Slowly, he peels his fingers off Lance and takes a step back. The fact that Keith can still feel the pounding in his chest is confirmation that it had been his heart the entire time.</p><p>“Yeah,” he says, mind finally catching up with the rest of the world. “Of course.” His voice doesn’t sound right, even in his own ears. He’s too breathless, as if Keith had been the one flying for the first time rather than the other way around.</p><p>Lance is watching him, but his gaze is focused somewhere below Keith’s eyes. Self-consciously, Keith wets his lips. He’s painfully aware that he hasn’t used lip balm recently.</p><p>“You,” Lance starts, voice rough. He clears his throat and speaks again. “You didn’t tell me how to land.”</p><p>Keith blinks. “Oh,” he says stupidly. Of course. Lance had stayed up there for so long because Keith had never told him how to land. What a great teacher he’s turning out to be. “Right.”</p><p>“How do you land?” Lance presses.</p><p>Keith stares at him stupidly for a moment before realizing that he has to answer. “You have to slowly release the magic. Staying as controlled as you were when up there.”</p><p>“I didn’t feel very controlled,” Lance confesses.</p><p>“You were,” Keith says. “You’re a lot more stable than I was when I started.” It’s important to him that Lance understands this – that Lance knows how talented and strong he really is. “You’re honestly probably more stable than I am now when I hover. All you need is more time with Tornado so it’ll last longer.”</p><p>The sun, already starting to set – when had it gotten this late? – casts a faint glow on Lance’s cheeks, bathing them in pink. Keith’s heart thunders all the way up into his ears. “Thanks,” Lance says. There’s a weight behind it, as if Lance is saying more than just thank you to him.</p><p>He wants to respond with something as meaningful as what Lance had left out of that word, but he can’t think of anything good enough. Lance has potential to be a really good Chaser. As good as Keith at least, maybe even as good as Shiro. He tries to put that into words, but he hears a crunch of footsteps behind him. On instinct, Keith gathers Wildfire as he spins around, ready to strike.</p><p>It’s Hunk.</p><p>Keith releases his hold on the magic, hoping neither of the other two notice the steam around his fingertips.</p><p>“Hunk,” Lance greets, sounding almost as surprised as Keith feels. He’d completely forgotten that Hunk was still there.</p><p>“Hey,” Hunk greets them both. “It’s starting to get late, and I’m hungry. Are you guys done?”</p><p>Keith turns to look at Lance. He doesn’t want to say goodbye, doesn’t want to leave this field that they’ve made theirs, but Hunk’s right. The sun is starting to set, and it can be dangerous to train in the dark. But he’s gotten really bad at keeping track of the time whenever he trains with Lance. The minutes seem to slip through his fingers faster than they had when he’d trained alone.</p><p>Lance gives him a look, and Keith shrugs. He’d be willing to stay if Lance wants, bad idea or no. “Sure,” Lance tells Hunk. “We should get out of here.”</p><p>“Phew,” Hunk says. “I really thought you were gonna be out here all night.”</p><p>The three of them leave the field, Hunk leading the way. He rambles about different foods he’s thinking of cooking that night or maybe just within the next week, and Keith tunes him out. He walks slower than the other two, unable to help but feel that he’s losing a grip on this moment. Once they leave the field, it’ll be over, and Keith doesn’t know how best to hold onto it yet. He doesn’t even know what this moment is, but he’s afraid if they leave he’ll lose his chance to find out.</p><p>“Hey.” Keith is jerked out of his thoughts by Lance’s quiet voice next to him. For some reason, he’s hanging back with Keith instead of walking ahead with Hunk. For his part, Hunk doesn’t even seem to notice that the two of them have fallen behind. He’s waxing poetic about some sauce he plans on making. If it’s even a sauce. Keith isn’t sure. “You okay?” Lance asks.</p><p>The question is simple, so the answer should be too, but it isn’t that easy. Because Keith doesn’t know himself. He swallows back the lump forming in his throat and nods. “Yeah,” he says. “Why wouldn’t I be?”</p><p>Lance shrugs. “You’re quiet.”</p><p>Keith doesn’t point out that he’s usually quiet.</p><p>Hunk reaches the car before the two of them, and by the time they get there it seems like he’s done ranting about food. It’s probably for the best; Keith doesn’t know anything about food, and Hunk sounds like he’s training to be a chef, so there’s nothing Keith could add to the conversation. His eyes would probably just glaze over, making him an even worse conversation partner than he already is.</p><p>Besides, his mind is completely focused elsewhere.</p><p>“You wanna join us?” Hunk asks after Lance unlocks the car and the three of them get in, Keith once again in the back.</p><p>He’s sure he missed something in Hunk’s ramble, because the question makes no sense. “Join you?” he asks.</p><p>“For dinner,” Hunk clarifies.</p><p>“Oh,” is the intelligent answer Keith gives. He doesn’t have a response other than that; it hadn’t been what he’d expected.</p><p>Lance doesn’t say anything as he starts the car and begins to drive, but Hunk turns around in his seat so that he’s facing Keith. “So was that a yes?” he asks. “I need to know if I should grab more spices.”</p><p>Keith blinks. Is dinner a good idea? His eyes dart over to the back of Lance’s head, as if it’ll magically give him an answer. But Lance stays oddly quiet, leaving Keith to flounder on his own. “Not tonight,” he decides eventually. “I promised Shiro I’d be home.” He’d made no such promise, not explicitly, but he doesn’t want to accept an invite unless it comes from Lance himself.</p><p>Hunk hums. “That’s too bad,” he says facing forward again. “It’d be fun to have you over. Maybe next time.”</p><p>“Maybe next time,” Keith agrees absently.</p><p>He stares at the back of Lance’s headrest, acutely aware that Lance hadn’t said anything about the invitation. Maybe he doesn’t actually want Keith to come over. After all, no matter how much Lance doesn’t seem to mind driving Keith home, he’s never asked him over before. And he hadn’t been the one to do the inviting in the first place.</p><p>In fact, Lance hasn’t said a single word since he’d asked Keith if he were okay.</p><p>He stays focused on the road, and Hunk fills the silence with another ramble. This time, though, Keith isn’t even paying enough attention to know if this one is about food again or if it’s about something entirely different. Hell, Hunk could be talking about Keith and he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.</p><p>No, instead Keith spends the rest of the drive back to Shiro’s place watching the slight sliver of Lance’s face that he can see reflected in the rearview mirror. The sun’s still casting that red glow on him that Keith’s starting to like.</p><p>He hopes it never sets.</p><p>They get to Shiro’s building faster than Keith’s used to. He doesn’t know how they do that. One minute, he’s watching the red glow of Lance’s cheek in the mirror, and the next the car is stopped by the sidewalk.</p><p>“Well,” Hunk says, turning once more to fully face Keith. “Thanks for letting me tag along. You guys are really good.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Keith replies absently. He’s still watching for a reaction from Lance. “No problem.”</p><p>A moment too late, he realizes that had been a dismissal. He fumbles with his seat belt before opening the door and finally stepping out. “Thanks for the ride,” he says automatically, the good manners that Shiro had beaten into his head coming in handy.</p><p>He remembers to close the door too, so at least he’s functional enough to do that. He crosses behind the car and barely makes it onto the sidewalk before Lance drives off. Normally, Lance waits at the curb until Keith gets inside, so Keith gets a view of him driving off. This time, though, it’s like Lance couldn’t wait to be rid of him. He doesn’t say goodbye, he doesn’t wave, he just zooms off, leaving Keith behind wondering what the hell he’d done to offend him.</p><p>He stays outside, staring at the Fit long after it turns the corner and disappears from view. The lamps flick on as the last of the sun slips behind the buildings, but Keith still stands there. Finally, the cold air pricks his skin and he turns and goes inside.</p><p>He doesn’t race up the stairs to the second floor the way he usually would. There’s really no point since Lance is already gone. Instead, he walks slowly to the elevator, hitting the button absently. Keith ends up having to call the elevator twice, because he doesn’t pay attention the first time and misses it, only realizing that when he hears a ding above him, indicating that it’s picking up passengers a few floors above him.</p><p>It’s a long time before he finally makes it back to Shiro’s apartment.</p><p>Shiro is, of course, in the middle of cooking dinner when Keith walks in. It’s nothing as intricate as the food Hunk had probably been describing, and judging by the smell, Shiro had already burned it. “Keith!” Shiro greets him loudly, trying to talk over the fan blowing smoke away from the stove. “Give me a bit. I need to start over.”</p><p>Keith ignores him, walking on auto pilot to the guest bedroom. He doesn’t even bother to close the door behind him, walking straight to the bed. He falls face first onto the mattress when his legs hit the edge.</p><p>“Keith?” Shiro’s voice calls after him almost immediately. “Everything okay?”</p><p>Keith doesn’t answer. It’s the wrong thing to do, and he knows that. Not answering means that Shiro will push even more. He doesn’t care though. His mind is still back on the field, hands gripping Lance. He must’ve done something wrong, he knows that, but he can’t think of what.</p><p>“Keith?” This time, Shiro’s voice is a lot closer.</p><p>The mattress next to Keith’s face dips down and cold fingers press against the back of Keith’s neck. “Are you sick?” Shiro asks.</p><p>Keith turns his head to face Shiro’s thigh. “No,” he mumbles.</p><p>“Okay,” Shiro says, removing his fingers. “Did something bad happen?”</p><p>Keith shakes his head. Or at least, he tries to. It’s hard when he’s pressed against the mattress like this.</p><p>“Did you hurt yourself training?” Shiro presses just like Keith had known he would.</p><p>Again, Keith tries to shake his head.</p><p>“Did you hurt Lance?”</p><p>“No,” Keith declares firmly, offended that Shiro even has to ask.</p><p>“Then what happened?”</p><p>“Nothing.”</p><p>“Why are you lying facedown on the bed in sweaty clothes with your shoes still on if nothing happened?”</p><p>Keith hadn’t even noticed that he’s still wearing his shoes. He opens his mouth to repeat himself, but Shiro talks over him. “And don’t say nothing. I know it’s not nothing.”</p><p>The problem is that Keith doesn’t even know what it is himself, so he has no idea what to say to Shiro. He settles on a simple, “I don’t know.”</p><p>“Can you sit up? My neck hurts just looking at you.”</p><p>Keith obliges, only because his neck had actually been starting to hurt. He kicks off his shoes too, just for good measure before sitting back down beside Shiro.</p><p>Shiro searches his face. “You don’t look sick.”</p><p>“I said I’m not sick.”</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>“I’m not lying.”</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>Silence falls between them for a moment while Keith searches for how to start. Shiro will keep pushing until he talks, so the easiest way to handle it is to just talk to him. “Something happened during training,” he says finally. It seems like as good a place to start as any. Shiro doesn’t say anything to that, so Keith continues. “I was teaching Lance to fly,” he explains. “But I never taught him to land. So he, uh, fell.”</p><p>Shiro sucks in a breath, but Keith shoots him a glance before he can ask anything.</p><p>“I caught him,” he assures Shiro. “I used Landslide so he wouldn’t fall as far and it would be softer than landing on the ground. But...” he trails off, not sure how he’s supposed to explain it from here.</p><p>“But he got hurt anyway?” Shiro asks, trying to finish Keith’s sentence for him.</p><p>“No. Neither of us got hurt.”</p><p>“Then what happened?”</p><p>“I,” Keith struggles. He grunts. “I don’t know.” He’s frustrated with the whole thing. Frustrated with himself for being unable to explain anything to Shiro. Frustrated with Shiro for not knowing how to read his mind so he doesn’t have to explain it. Frustrated with Lance for driving off without saying goodbye. “I didn’t let go,” he settles on eventually.</p><p>Shiro searches his face for something before asking. “You didn’t let go? Of Landslide?”</p><p>“No,” Keith replies. “Of Lance. He was still unsteady after he landed. I didn’t want him to fall over.”</p><p>Shiro’s expression changes to something understanding. He offers Keith a small smile. “I think,” he says softly, as if to prevent Keith from yelling at him, “that you should take some time to think.”</p><p>He knows something Keith doesn’t. Something about what happened today.</p><p>“What?” Keith asks. Shiro shakes his head, standing up. “Tell me!” Keith demands, shouting without meaning to.</p><p>“This is something you need to figure out on your own,” Shiro replies, as if that should explain everything. “Take whatever time you need.” He pats Keith on the shoulder. “But you should also shower and eat something.” And with that, he leaves Keith alone in his room with his confusion.</p><p>---</p><p>Keith doesn’t sleep well that night. He showers, like Shiro had told him to, and he comes out for dinner – pizza, delivered – but Shiro doesn’t give him any more hints for whatever the hell he’s supposed to be thinking about which would resolve all of this. So Keith goes back to his room while Shiro turns on the TV. He stares at his phone, willing for a message to come through that doesn’t want to appear. After the fifth time his phone goes black without any notifications, he lets it stay that way, staring instead at the dark screen.</p><p>It never lights up.</p><p>He stays up, rolling over from side to side, as if that will change the amount of service his phone gets. As if the service is the reason he’s not getting a response. Eventually he gives up and flops down on his back, staring at the ceiling. Occasionally, it’s lit up by cars as they pass on the street outside, but Keith doesn’t bother to get up and close the blinds. </p><p>He’s back on the field instead, living through that moment again and again. He plays through it the way he remembers, from Lance falling to him calling Landslide to the two of them standing there while Keith holds onto Lance. He replays the scene in his head over and over, imagining that he’d counted the freckles across Lance’s nose. Sometimes he counts 14. Other times there are 36. It’s never consistent, because Keith can’t remember if the details he’s picturing are real or if his mind had created them. Does Lance really have a divet under his lip or had Keith made that up? He doesn’t know anymore.</p><p>He remembers the rise and fall of Lance’s chest as he’d breathed. He can still feel the thudding of Lance’s heart – or maybe his heart – as their bodies had been pressed together, closer than before. He remembers how cold he’d felt when he’d been forced to let Lance go. He remembers Lance asking him if he was okay, and how Keith had answered with some words he doesn’t even remember.</p><p>He remembers how Lance hadn’t looked at him when Keith had left.</p><p>What had he done wrong?</p><p>He tries to work through it, but his mind won’t budge from the way Keith had felt when he’d held onto Lance. He’d reacted so strongly to the sight of Lance plummeting from the sky, even though he’d shot things at Lance which would do much more damage than that. But more than that, why is he always checking his phone whenever he’s expecting a text from Lance? Why is Lance the first thing he thinks about in the morning and the last thing he thinks about at night?</p><p>Why does he care so much?</p><p>The last question especially is not so easily answered. Keith likes being around Lance, especially now that they’ve started to train together. He’s more talkative, more open than either Keith or Shiro. It’s a breath of fresh air, though two months ago, Keith wouldn’t have thought he’d like that. Instead, he finds himself actively seeking out Lance, the good quirks and the bad. He likes the constant messages sent from Lance, even though it seems like he sends them before finishing a thought. That should annoy him too, but it doesn’t. He likes hearing about Lance’s day, about the good customers and the bad ones. He likes when Lance talks about his coworkers like Keith should know who they are, even though he’s never heard of them before.</p><p>And he likes when Lance smiles.</p><p>So what? Keith likes being around Shiro too. This really shouldn’t be anything new, but it’s different with Lance. He’s never felt that innate need to hold onto him – at least not literally the way he does with Lance. A few years ago, he might’ve felt something similar with Shiro, but that was different. At the time, he’d needed the assurance that Shiro was still <em>there</em>. But still, Lance is different.</p><p>With Lance, touching him is like touching a live wire. It’s like being in a thunderstorm and feeling all his hair stand on end. It’s like Chasing a Storm and getting the rush of adrenaline that comes along with it. It’s like reaching the end and meeting Hurricane.</p><p>It’s <em>different</em> than Shiro.</p><p>Keith locks himself up in his thoughts for so long that he thinks the light reflected on the ceiling of his room is from a car outside, waiting for someone without turning their lights off. But the light is pink, and instead of staying the same or disappearing completely, it gets brighter and brighter. Ah. It’s the sun. He’s been up all night.</p><p>He’s been up all night thinking about <em>Lance</em>.</p><p>The worst part of it – aside from his sore muscles – is the fact that there’s still no new message waiting for him when he picks up his phone. He hadn’t sent one either, true, but he’s never had to be the one to initiate. Lance <em>always</em> send the first message. Keith’s not even sure he knows how at this point.</p><p>Eventually, he hears rustling down the hall as Shiro gets up and starts getting ready for work. What would it be like, Keith wonders, if that were Lance?</p><p>Well, he wouldn’t be down the hallway first off.</p><p>The thought is so matter of fact, that it startles him. Keith sits up, stretching his neck as he peels over what his mind had just conjured. Why wouldn’t Lance be down the hallway?</p><p>Because he’d be in the same room as Keith.</p><p>Why would they be in the same room?</p><p>Because they’d be sharing a bed.</p><p>And why...?</p><p>Keith blinks once.</p><p>Twice.</p><p>Then he pushes himself off the bed, his muscles straining from the fact that he hadn’t stretched the night before. He barely registers how sore he is from sparring as he walks out of the room.</p><p>“Oh.” Keith turns to see Shiro having just emerged from his bathroom, only half dressed for work. “I didn’t know you were awake.”</p><p>Keith stares blankly at him, words pushing at his throat, but his mouth refuses to let them out.</p><p>Shiro approaches, his initial shock fading into his normal state of worry. “Are you okay?”</p><p>Keith stares through Shiro, not answering and barely aware of the fact that Shiro is there.</p><p>“Keith?”</p><p>The sound of his name is enough to remind Keith that he’s here, and that Shiro is talking to him. He feels a sense of detachment from his body, as if he’s watching himself from afar. “Is everything okay?” Shiro asks.</p><p>Keith opens his mouth. “I like him,” he tries. His voice cracks a little, rough from the lack of sleep. He’s going to regret this soon. He’s surprised he doesn’t already.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>Keith finds his voice, stronger than the last time. “I think,” he says slowly, feeling out the words as he says them, “I’m in love with Lance.” </p><p>And as he says it, Keith knows that it’s true.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
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        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i post art on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/rinthegreat/">instagram</a><br/>i post random stuff on <a href="https://twitter.com/rinthegreat_ao3">twitter</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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